have been living in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Lebanon and Syria since the

middle Byzantine or the Ottoman era and in Constantinople (Istanbul), Smyrna (Izmir) and other
parts of Anatolia (such as the port towns
of Amasra, Sinop, Trabzon, Enez, Foa, eme, Bodrum, Alanya, Mersin, Iskenderun, etc., where
the colonies of Genoese and Venetian merchants existed) in present-day Turkey.
The majority are either the descendants of traders from the maritime
republics of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Ancona and Ragusa who had colonies in the East Mediterranean
coast; or the descendants of the French/Italian Levantines who lived in the Crusader states of the
Levant (in present-day Lebanon, Israel and Syria), especially in port towns such
as Beirut, Tripoli, Tyre, Byblos, Acre, Jaffa, Latakia, etc.; or in major cities near the coast, such
as Tarsus, Antioch, Jerusalem, etc. Others may be converts to Roman Catholicism, immigrants from
Anglo-French colonization, or Eastern Christians who had resided there for centuries.

Italian Levantines[edit]
The name Italo-Levantine is specifically applied to people of Italian (especially Venetian or Genoese)
origin, but even with some French or other Euro-Mediterranean roots, who have lived
in Istanbul, zmir and other parts of Anatolia in Turkey. Some of the Italian Levantines may have
ancestral origins also in the eastern Mediterranean coast (the Levant, particularly in presentday Lebanon and Israel) dating back to the period of the Crusades and the Byzantine Empire. A
small group came from Crimea and from the Genoese colonies in the Black Sea, after the Fall of
Constantinople in 1453.
The majority of the Levantines in modern Turkey are the descendants of traders/colonists from the
Italian maritime republics of the Mediterranean (especially Genoa and Venice) and France, who
obtained special rights and privileges called the Capitulations from the Ottoman sultans in the 16th
century.[1]
There are two large communities of Italian Levantines: one in Istanbul and the other in Izmir. At the
end of the 19th century there were nearly 6,000 Levantines of Italian roots in Izmir.[2] They came
mainly from the nearby Genoese island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.[3]
The community had more than 15,000 members during Atatrk's presidency in the 1920s and
1930s, but today is reduced to only a few hundreds, according to Italian Levantine writer Giovanni
Scognamillo.[4]
They continue to live in Istanbul (mostly in the districts of Karaky, Beyolu and Nianta), and Izmir
(mostly in the districts of Karyaka, Bornova and Buca.)
Most Latin rite Catholics in Turkey are Levantines of mainly Italian background.[citation needed] The largest
Catholic church in Turkey is the Church of St. Anthony of Padua on stiklal Avenue in
the Beyolu (Pera) district of Istanbul, which was constructed between 1906 and 1912 by the Italian
Levantine community.
They have been influential in creating and reviving a tradition of opera.[5] Famous people of the
present-day Levantine community in Turkey include Maria Rita Epik, Franco-Levantine Caroline
Giraud Ko and Italo-Levantine Giovanni Scognamillo. Most of Turkey's small Roman
Catholic community are Levantines.

Notable people[edit]
Famous people of the present-day Italian Levantine community