THE POPULATION OF TURKEY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 195, 22 December 1876, Page 8

THE POPULATION OF TURKEY.

AX Thb war in Turkey lias had the effect of discovering to the majority of newspaper readers their ignorance of its geography, history, and population. ' Especially with regard to the races subject to the Sultan and the inhabitants of tributary States included in maps as parti of the country does a general ignorance prevail. It may not therefore, be presumptuous in us to present on this subject some recent and authentic information. The population of Turkey, exclusive of tributary States, is 8,430,000. Adding to these the number of inhabitants in Servia, 1,340,000; Montenegro, 125,000, and Boumania, 4,500,000, the total population is 14,395,000, of whom about 42 per cent are Mohamedan. The Greeks, Albanians, and Boumamans are of the Greco-Latin race, and the Servians, Bulgarians, and Russians, of the Sclavonic. Besides these are represented in smaller numbers Armenians, Jews, Gypsies, Circassians, Arabs, Magyars, and foreigners ; the Circasiians, who are the most numerous of this group, only numbering 144,000. It is calculated that of the GrecoLatin race in Turkey the Greeks number 1,137,000 ; the Albanians 1,011,000, and the Roumanians, 200,000 ; and of the Sclavs, the Servians, 1,388,000; the Bulgarians, 2,877,500, and the Russians 10,000. To localise tbese numerous peoples is a work of considerable difficulty ; but roughly it may be said the Turks are the majority in Constantinople, and in the sanjaku of Serayvo, Prizrend, Divra Berat, Drama, Basichuk, Tulcha, and Tarna. The Greeks, of whom many are thought to be nothing but Grecized Sclavs, are stronger in the Kpirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, Thrace and along the shores of the Black Sea. The Albanians, a fine, warlike race, live principally between the Epirus and Montenegro ; 723,000 of them are Mohammedans, 200,000 Roman Catholics, and 88,000 belong to the Greek Church. The Roumanians are of the bulk of the population of Wallaobia and Moldavia. Most of the Servians are members of thp Greek Church, but a large number having turned Mohammedan to M*e their land* from confiscation, there are now about 463,000 Servian followers of the Prophet. Over 60,000 are Roman, Catholics The Montenegrin and Herzegovinians are Sclats.