| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 27,000 descendants [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Valparaíso, La Serena, Santiago | |
| Languages | |
| Chilean Spanish, Lebanese Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Arab Chileans |
| Part of a series of articles on |
| Lebanese people |
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| |
Lebanese Chileans, are immigrants to Chile from Lebanon. Most are Christian and they arrived in Chile in the mid-19th to early-20th centuries to escape from poverty. Ethnically Lebanese Chileans are often called "Turks", (Spanish: Turcos) a term believed to derive from the fact that they arrived from present day Lebanon, which at that time was occupied by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. [2] Most arrived as members of the Eastern Orthodox church and the Maronite church, but became Roman Catholic. [3] A minority are Muslim. [4]