Anti-Turkish Sentiment: Hostility, fear or intolerance against Turkey and its people

The term refers to intolerance not only against the Turks across all regions, but also against Turkic groups as a whole, including Azerbaijanis, Crimean Tatars and Turkmens. It is also applied on groups who developed in part under the influence of Turkish culture and traditions while converting to Islam, especially during Ottoman times, such as Albanians, Bosniaks and other smaller ethnic groups around Balkans during the period of Ottoman rule. It can also refer to racism against Turkish people living outside of Turkey following the Turkish diaspora.

The main historical adversaries of Turkic peoples are considered to be Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, and Serbians. The main reasons for these historical conflicts lie in the annexation of their ancestral lands by Turkish colonists.

The roots of anti-Turkism can be traced back to the arrival of the Huns in Europe. While the ethnic background of the Huns is a matter of dispute among historians, they are widely believed to have been of Turkic origin, and their invasion inspired fear among Europeans. In the Late Middle Ages, the fall of Constantinople and the Ottoman wars in Europe — part of European Christians’ effort to stem the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to Turkey — helped fuel the development of anti-Turkism.

• Khojaly Massacre