List of British Turks

The following is a list of British Turks, including people of full or partial ethnic Turkish origin with British citizenship.

The majority of notable British Turks come from the large Turkish Cypriot community, followed by ethnic Turks who originate from Turkey. In addition, there are notable British Turks who descend from other post-Ottoman modern nation-states which still have significant ethnic Turkish minorities. For example, from the Balkans, Silvena Rowe has a paternal Turkish Bulgarian background^[1] Moustafa Palazli has a Turkish Western Thracian background from Greece.^[2] From North Africa, Kasim Kutay has a paternal Turkish Egyptian background.^[3] Meanwhile, Egyptian-born Dodi Fayed was maternally of Turkish Saudi origin.^[4] From the Levant, Farah Zeynep Abdullah, Nemir Kirdar^[5] and Rena Kirdar^[5] have a Turkish Iraqi background; Rana Kabbani has a Turkish Syrian background;^[6] and Skandar Keynes and Soumaya Keynes have a maternal Turkish Lebanese background.^[7]

In addition, there are notable naturalised British citizens of Turkish origin who descend from the modern Turkish diaspora (i.e. from countries which were never part of the former Ottoman Empire). The majority are "Euro-Turks" who descend from Western Europe (e.g. Elif Shafak^[8] have a Turkish French background; Atif Bashir^[9] and Semra Eren-Nijhar^[10] have a Turkish German background). Some British Turks have also come from the diaspora in North America (e.g. Erdem Moralioğlu has a Turkish Canadian background^[11]).

Many notable British Turks have dual nationality, including British nationality and the country which they descend from (e.g. Cypriot, TRNC, Turkish, Bulgarian, Iraqi, etc.). Some British Turks have also moved to other parts of the modern Turkish diaspora where they have acquired another citizenship. This is most notable among the British-Turkish Cypriot diaspora; for example, in addition to their British citizenship, Hal Ozsan also has American citizenship; Mutlu Çerkez also has Australian citizenship; and Alkan Chaglar and Erol Kahraman both also have Canadian citizenship, etc.

Academia

Mete Atatüre, Professor of Physics at University of Cambridge
Süleyman Başak, Professor of Finance at the London Business School (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[12]
Mehmet Ismet Başaran, chemical engineer and philatelist
Müge Çevik, clinical lecturer in Infectious Diseases and Medical Virology at the University of St Andrews
Mustafa Djamgoz, Professor of Cancer Biology at Imperial College London and Chairman of the College of Medicine’s Science Council (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[13]
Semra Eren-Nijhar, sociologist (Turkish German origin)^[10]
Zakaria Erzinçlioğlu, renowned forensic entomologist (Turkish Hungarian origin)^[14]
Ten Feizi, FMedSci FRS, Professor and Director of the Glycosciences Laboratory at Imperial College London (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[15]^[16]
Firat Güder, bioengineer, scientist, innovator
Rana Kabbani, cultural historian, writer and broadcaster (Turkish Syrian origin)^[6]
Deniz Kandiyoti, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the SOAS University of London^[17]
Ziya Meral, researcher^[18]
Frederick Akbar Mahomed, was an internationally known British physician
Gulnur Muradoglu, Professor of Behavioural Finance at Queen Mary University of London^[19]
Mustafa F. Özbilgin, Professor of Human Resource Management at Brunel University^[20]
Zehra Sayers, structural biologist
Ibrahim Sirkeci, Professor of Business and Management and Director of the International Business School, Manchester ^[21]
Ayşe Zarakol, Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge

Arts and literature

Memo Akten, artist
Kutluğ Ataman, artist and film director^[22]
Ali Kemal Bey, Ottoman journalist^[23]
Alkan Chaglar, journalist (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[24]
Mutlu Çerkez, artist (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[25]
Tice Cin, writer, editor and multidisciplinary artist^[26]
Tracey Emin, artist (Turkish Cypriot father)^[27]^[28]
Mehmet Ergen, theatre director and founder of Arcola Theatre^[29]
Fiore de Henriquez, Italian-born sculptor (Turkish and Russian mother; Spanish father; naturalised British citizen)^[30]
Mustafa Hulusi, artist (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[31]^[32]
Ümit Hussein, literary translator and interpreter (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[33]
Yaşar İsmailoğlu, poet (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[34]
Rachel Johnson, journalist, television presenter, and author (Turkish great-grandfather)^[35]^[36]
Fatoş Üstek, is a London-based independent Turkish curator and writer
Bengi Unsal, director of Institute of Contemporary Arts
Soumaya Keynes, trade and globalization editor at The Economist magazine (Turkish Lebanese mother)^[7]
Rena Kirdar, writer (Turkish Iraqi origin)^[5]
Ela Lee, author and former lawyer
Arif Ozakca, artist (Turkish Cypriot origin)^[37]
Elif Shafak, novelist (Turkish French origin; naturalised British citizen)^[38]
Ceylan Yeğinsu, journalist and currently a staff reporter for The New York Times
Robert Paul Weston, children's author (British-Turkish father)^[39]