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Afro-Turks join global outcry over George Floyd killing

The little-known community that largely traces its roots to the Ottoman slave trade is speaking out about police brutality in America, saying their own example of coexistence is an example for the West.

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An Afro-Turk is pictured outside his home in the village of Tulum, near Izmir in western Turkey, May 18, 2019 — Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Black minority has joined the global protest against the killing of African-American George Floyd, part of the community’s greater expression of its identity in a country that is often loath to embrace its diversity.

Turks of African descent gathered in the western port city of Izmir earlier this month to condemn US police brutality as protests spread from Minneapolis, where Floyd’s May 25 killing was caught on video, across the United States to Europe and the Middle East, transforming the Black Lives Matter movement into a global cry for social justice.

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