10.2005 - Source: UK Border Agency (Home Office)

Report on the Status of the Arab minorities ("Country Report - October 2005") [#40563],  [ID 13790]

"6.287 According to World Directory of Minorities (1997) “There are probably about one million Arabs in the provinces of Urfa, Mardin, Siirt and Hatay (Alexandretta). Unlike the Turkish Sunni Majority Sunni Arabs belong to the Shaf’I tradition (which they share in common with most Sunni Kurds). They are denied the opportunity to use their language except in private, and the use of Arabic is forbidden in schools.” [57a] (p382)

6.288 The World Directory of Minorities continued “About 200,000 Alawi, or Nusayri Arabs live in the northern most settlements of the larger Alawite community in Syria. They are a distinct religious community from Alevis but have in common reverence for Ali, the prophet’s son-in-law, as an emanation of the divinity. Alawites have an uneasy relationship with Sunnis, but are more comfortable with Christians.” [57a] (p382)

6.289 The World Directory also stated that “There are still about 10,000 Orthodox and Melkite (uniate with Rome) Christians (or, as they call themselves, Nasrani) in the Hatay….They feel under pressure, like other Arabs, to ‘Turkicize’.” [57a] (p382)"

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