Turks in Serbia (
Turkish: Sırbistan'daki Türkler), also referred to as Turkish Serbians and Serbian Turks, are people of
Turkish ancestry present in
Serbia. Turks have lived on this territory since the
Ottoman period. The Turkish minority has traditionally lived in the urban areas of Serbia together with many Muslim Albanians; however, in 1830, when the
Principality of Serbia was granted autonomy, most Turks emigrated as "
muhacirs" (refugees) to
Ottoman Turkey, and by
1862 almost all of the remaining Turks left
Central Serbia, including 3,000 from
Belgrade.[3] According to the 2011 census only 647 people declared themselves as Turks, though this does not include the
Turkish minority in Kosovo.[4]
Hikmet Kıvılcımlı, Turkish communist leader, theoretician, writer, publicist, and translator. He was a founder of the Vatan Partisi (VP)
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, Turkish poet, through his mother he is descended from Hafız Paşazade Mahmut Paşa from
Niš. Also his great uncle Leskofçalı Galip was born in
Leskovac,
Serbia.
^Vuletić, Aleksandra (2012),
Censuses in 19th century Serbia: inventory of preserved microdata(PDF), Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, p. 7, The Turkish civilian population, which lived almost exclusively in urban areas, started to emigrate from Serbia after it was granted the autonomous status in 1830. In 1862, all remaining Turkish civilians were to leave Serbia. According to some estimations, about 3000 Turks left Belgrade that year („Državopis Srbije" II: 15). Turkish military garrisons stationed in six towns were also to leave in 1867.