Countries and autonomous regions where a Turkic language has official status.
Indigenous ethnicities and emigrant communities living in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Albania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Cyprus, China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) , Mongolia, Russia, Iran, Bulgaria, Moldova (Gagauz Autonomous Republic), Iraq, Syria, Romania, Western Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden et al.), United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family.[4] They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people including existing societies such as the Azerbaijani, Kazakhs, Tatar, Kyrgyz, Turkish people, Turkmen, Uyghur, Uzbeks, and as well as past civilizations such as the Huns, Bulgars, Kumans, Avars, Seljuks, Khazars, Ottomans, Mamluks, Timurids, and possibly the Xiongnu.[4][5][6]
Many of the Turkic peoples have their homelands in Central Asia, where the Turkic peoples originated from, but since then Turkic languages have spread, through migrations and conquests, to other locations including present-day Turkey. While the term "Turk" may refer to a member of any Turkic people, the term Turkish usually refers specifically to the people and language of Turkey.
