5 But the influx of Syrians is different in its size and nature from these previous population influxes. 4 Overall, between 1923, the year Turkey was founded, and 1990, at least 1.4 million people immigrated to Turkey, primarily from the Balkans but also from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Turkey has experienced other mass in-migrations in the past century, including the arrival of 350,000 Greek Muslims in the immediate aftermath of the 1923 population exchange agreement with Greece 3 and 340,000 ethnic Turks expelled by Bulgaria in 1989. Syrian refugees are reinforcing this trend, with some 96 percent of them residing in urban or semiurban areas. In 1980, a clear majority of Turks lived in rural areas today, Turkey’s population is three-quarters urban. 1 The process of Turkish-Syrian mutual adaptation is only the latest chapter of transformation in a society that has undergone significant internal and external migrations in past decades. The arrival of 4 million Syrian refugees is changing Turkish society and will continue to do so for at least a generation.
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