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The Gagauzes of Turkiye

The Gagauzes of Turkiye, numbering approximately 17,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Turkic-speaking people who are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christians, a combination that makes them quite distinctive among the world's Turkic peoples, most of whom are traditionally Muslim. They mostly adhere to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Gagauz is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: Gagauz

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: Turkiye
People Cluster: Turkic
Primary Language(s): Gagauz (gag)
Primary Religion(s): Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Population: 17,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024594
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Pray for the Gagauzes of Turkiye

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

80%
%
Eastern Orthodox Christia… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Gagauz
Language Family: Turkic

100%
%
Gagauz Speakers

Media Resources in Gagauz:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Gagauz:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow✓✓✓
Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow✓✓✓

2 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Gagauz bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Gagauzes are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Gagauzes:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Gagauzes of Turkiye

The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.
readPsalm 6:9

Pray that lost people will hear the gospel and place their faith in Christ, knowing that He hears their plea and accepts their prayer.

Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
readPsalm 47:6

Pray that believers will have a heart to invite others to trust in Christ alone so that they might sing praises to His name.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
readHebrews 10:35

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will hold unswervingly to their faith and to their confidence in Christ, which has a great reward.

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
read2 Corinthians 1:5

When any who might believe suffer for the sake of the gospel, ask God to deepen their understanding of His grace so that they may share it freely with those who have not received it.

Gagauz Across Countries (ROP3 - 103132) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
GagauzesPG000862GagauzesMoldova146,000Engaged yet UnreachedGagauzEastern Orthodox Christianity
GagauzesPG024594GagauzesTurkiye17,500Engaged yet UnreachedGagauzEastern Orthodox Christianity
GagauzesPG000736GagauzesBulgaria9,400Engaged yet UnreachedGagauzEastern Orthodox Christianity
GagauzesPG024300GagauzesKazakhstan1,200Unengaged and UnreachedGagauzEastern Orthodox Christianity

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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