Have you heard about the Afro-Turks?

(Pictures: Tuğçe Güder a Turkish model who was chosen as the Best Model of the World in 2005)

Who are these people? Mehmet, Ali, Ayşe, Rabia, Arzu, Emine, Hatice and Hüseyin, to name a few. Everything is typically Turkish except for one detail: They are black. No,I'm not talking about African immigrants in Turkey. They were born and raised in turkey, they speak turkish and they hold the turkish passport...They are called the "Afro-turks""or African turks.

A number of centuries ago, many Africans were taken to Turkey by Arab merchants. Most of them were from Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Rthiopia, and Kenya brought to the Ottoman Empire by the Arab slave trade to plantations around Dalaman, Menderes and Gediz valleys, Manavgat, and Çukurova... There are nearly 1 million turkish citizen of African descent.
Im one out of four of them :)