Do you know anything about Turks migrating to Switzerland about 200 to 300 years ago?

Question

My half brother thinks we're part Turkish through our Swiss grandmother. Her father's surname was Cori and he was born in the village of Ruchine, Canton Graubunden. The old records were burned in a church fire, but there are a lot of Coris in Turkey. My half brother thinks our turkish ancestors were Christians and left for Switzerland to escape persecution under the Ottoman Empire. Is there any way to find out if his theory is true?

My half brother is very dark and was constantly mistaken for a Turk in Turkey. Nearly all our grandmother's descendents have her olive skin and dark eyes, even after two or three generations of mixing with Northern Europeans. I am also part native from my mother but I have my grandmother's colouration.

Answer 1

If the only indicators for your theory are the surname Cori and dark skin of you descendants is most unlikely that you are part Turkish.

There are no records about  significant Turkish immigration to Switzerland 200 to 300 years ago. The idea of a Turkish  refugee ending up in a rural Swiss mountain canton might be a good story line for a film but it is really not a very likely scenario.

The following scenario is much more likely:

The canton of Graubünden boarders to Italy. Some parts of the canton are even speak Italian. Cori is an Italian surname too. Many Italians or Swiss-Italians have dark  skin and dark eyes.  A lot  of them  look similar to Turks. So your descendants are much more likely to have Italian or Swiss-Italian roots.

@ Paul s Switzerland was never part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman expansion in Europe did never go that far.

Answer 2

sounds like a very intesting question -- I would like to ask one of the other answerers to cite a reference that Switzerland was part of the Ottoman Empire at any time in the past.  It may well be true, and I just hadn't ever heard it.

There certainly have been expusions of various ethnic and religious groups from modern Turkey area well back into time.  I can't find any particular specific reference to those groups coming to Switzerland.  Until recently, when Europe began needing more laborers, there wouldn't have been, I think, much ordinary immigration of mid-easterners into Switzerland -- The Swiss didn't much care for outsiders as a rule; however, there were examples of particular individuals who were granted sanctuary in Switzerland for religious reasons, or more recently, for political reasons.

I can only suggest that you can immerse yourself in the literature available about Turkish migration and Swiss immigration to see what you can find.  I find your premise very possible, though unusual.

Answer 3

it makes sense to me. but perhaps his dark skin came from his other side of the family that ur not related to. just a thought though.

u could hire someone to find out or u could got to like ancestry.com and find out ur self

Answer 4

The Ottoman Turkish Empire 1299-1922 encompassed the area of modern day Switzerland, so it is quite possible that an ancestor of yours, living in Switzerland, could have had some Turkish ancestry, there were many actions, sieges etc., by Turkish soldiers and mercenaries to seize control and to then hold onto their new "possessions", throughout the Turkish Empire. This article gives the dates of some of those actions in that region, and they do fit nicely with your brother's theory, I personally think they would not have been religious emigres because they, 200 to 300 years ago, would have simply been moving from one place within Turkish control to another within Turkish control.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Emp...