Turks of Western Thrace (; ) are ethnic Turks who live in Western Thrace, in the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece.
According to the Greek census of 1991, there were approximately 50,000 of Turkish origin in Western Thrace, out of the approximately 98,000 strong Muslim minority of Greece. Other sources estimate the size of the Muslim community between 90,000 and 120,000... Their community of Western Thrace is not to be confused with Pomaks nor with Muslim Roma people of the same region, counting 35% and 15% of the Muslim minority respectively.Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, Υπηρεσία Ενημέρωσης: Μουσουλμάνικη μειονότητα ΘράκηςGreek Helsinki Monitor: Religious freedom in Greece
Due to the multiethnic character of the Muslim minority of Greece, which includes Greek Muslims, Turks, Pomaks and Roma Muslims, the Government of Greece does not refer to it by a specific ethnic background, nor does recognize any of these ethnicities, including the Turks, as separate ethnic minority in Western Thrace, instead referring to the whole Muslim minority on religious grounds, as the "Muslim Minority of Western Thrace" or "Greek Muslims". This is in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne to which Greece, along with Turkey, is a signature member. The Lausanne Treaty, along with the Greek Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, enshrines the fundamental rights of the Turks and other ethnic groups of East Macedonia and Thrace and the obligations towards them.
History
Parts of Western Thrace were overrun by the expanding Ottoman Empire in 1354 and remained in Ottoman control until 1913. During this time, the Turkish community grew to outnumber the Greek community four to one and owned close to 84% of the land. By August 31, 1913, the Turks of Western Thrace had formed the first 'Turkish republic', the Provisional Government of Western Thrace.. However, it was taken over by the Kingdom of Bulgaria on October 25, 1913, which had been victorious in the First Balkan War. France occupied the area at the end of the First World War, following the defeat of Bulgaria, and it passed into Greek hands under the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920.. Under a protocol of the same year, the Turks of Western Thrace were exempted from the 1922–1923 exchange of populations agreement between Greece and Turkey and were granted rights within the framework of the Lausanne Treaty. However, since 1923, between 300,000 and 400,000 Turks have left Western Thrace most of which have immigrated to Turkey... The actual Ottoman-era Greek Muslims of Macedonia had been included among those 'Turks' expatriated to Turkey in 1924. including the Vallahades. In contrast, the Western Thrace Turks are completely distinct from those referred to as Greek Muslims and were exempt from the terms of the population exchange.
A number of estimates and censuses during the 1912–1920 period gave the following results about the ethnic distribution of the area that would become known as Western Thrace:
General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace (1912–1920) Census/Estimate Muslims Pomaks Bulgarians Greeks Others Total 1912 estimate 120,000 – 40,000 60,000 4,000 224,000 1919 Bulgarian 79,539 17,369 87,941 28,647 10,922 224,418 1919 Bulgarian 77,726 20,309 81,457 32,553 8,435 220,480 1920 French 74,730 11,848 54,092 56,114 7,906 204,690 1920 Greek 93,273 – 25,677 74,416 6,038 201,404
The Pomak population depending on the source was sometimes counted together with the Turks according to the Ottoman system of classifying people depending on religion, while in other occasions was specified separately. On the other hand, according to the Bulgarian view, they are considered "Bulgarian Muslims" and an integral part of the Bulgarian nation.
According to the Turkish thesis, as it was presented at Lausanne Peace Conference (1920), the general distribution of population in Western Thrace was as follows:.
Turkish thesis on the General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace in 1920 (before the population exchange) Cities Turks Greeks Bulgarians Jews Armenians Total Komotini 59,967 (74.8%) 8,834 (11%) 9,997 (12.5%) 1,007 (1.3%) 360 (0.4%) 80,165 (100%) Alexandroupolis 11,744 (42.7%) 4,800 (17.5%) 10,227 (37.2%) 253 (0.9%) 449 (1.6%) 27,473 (100%) Soufli 14,736 (46.4%) 11,542 (36.3%) 5,490 (17.3%) – – 31,768 (100%) Xanthi 42,671 (81.7%) 8,728 (16.7%) 522 (1%) 220 (0.4%) 114 (0.2%) 52,255 (100%) Total 129,120 (67.4%) 33,910 (17.7%) 26,266 (13.7%) 1,480 (0.8%) 923 (0.5%) 191,699 (100%)
During Ottoman rule before 1912, Greeks constituted a minority in the region of Western Thrace. After the Balkan Wars and World War I the demography of the region was changed. While groups such as the Turks and Bulgarians decreased, the Greek population increased by the resettlement of ten thousands of Greek refugees from other areas of the Ottoman Empire, after the flight of the Greek refugees from Asia Minor, as a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), the Greek genocide and the subsequent population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Of all Greek Asia Minor refugees (around 1.2 million), 8% of them were resettled in Western Thrace. The Greek government's reason to settle the refugees in this region was to strengthen the Greek presence in the newly acquired provinces and the homogenization of the population. The Greek government especially resettled the refugees in Komotini, Xanthi and Sapes regions where the majority of Muslim Turks lived.
General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace in 1923, presented by the Greek delegation in Laussane (after the relocation of Asia Minor refugees) Districts Total Total Greeks Local Greeks Relocated Greek refugees Turks Bulgarians Jews Armenians Komotini 104,108 45,516 11,386 33,770 50,081 6,609 1,112 1,183 Alexandroupolis 38,553 26,856 9,228 17,518 2,705 9,102 – Soufli 32,299 25,758 11,517 14,211 5,454 1,117 – – Xanthi 64,744 36,859 18,249 18,613 27,882 – – Didymoteicho 34,621 31,408 21,759 9,649 3,213 – – – Orestiada 39,386 33,764 22,087 11,677 6,072 – – – Total 314,235 199,664 (63.5%) 94,226 (30.0%) 105,438 (33.6%) 95,407 (30.4%) 16,828 (5.4%) 1,112 (0.4%) 1,183 (0.4%)
Demographics
The Turkish community has a strong presence in the Komotini () and Xanthi () departments of East Macedonia and Thrace, while it is scarcely present in the Evros prefecture, the closest to the international boundary with Turkey. According to estimates, Muslims as a whole, represented 36–38% of the Rhodopi Department population, 12–24% in the Xanthi Department and less than 5% in the Evros Department.
Culture
Language
According to Ethnologue, in 1976 the Turkish language was spoken by 128,000 people in Greece, the majority of whom are located in the Western Thrace portion of the province of East Macedonia and Thrace. However, the Greek language is also widely used.
The Muslims of Western Thrace between 1919 and 1995Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers, Konstantinos Tsitselikis, page 568-569, 2012 Census/ statistics Total Turks Pomaks Roma Others Bulgarian 1919 (A) 96,908 79,539 17,369 – – Bulgarian 1919 (B) 98.035 77,726 20,309 – – French 1920 86,578 74,730 11,848 – – Greek 1920 3rd version 100,491 93,522 6,969 – – Greek official 1928 102,621 84,585 16,740 <1,023 ? Greek official 1951 105,092 85,945 18,664 303 180 Turkish MFA (1995) 150,000 ?? ? ? Greek MFA (1995) 120,000 ~60,000 ~42,000 ~18,000 -
Obligations of the Treaty of Lausanne Article 37 through 45 of the Lausanne Treaty set forth the obligations of the Greek and Turkish governments to protect the Turkish and Greek minorities in their territories. Each country agreed to provide the following:.
Protection of life and liberty without regard to birth, nationality, language, race or religion Free exercise of religion Freedom of movement and of emigration Equality before the law The same civil and political rights enjoyed by the majority Free use of language in private, in commerce, in religion, the press and publications, at public meetings and in the courts The right to establish and control charitable, religious and social institutions and schools Primary schools in which instruction is given in both languages Full protection for religious establishments and pious foundation
The Lausanne Treaty defined the rights of the Muslim communities in Western Thrace, on the basis of religion, not ethnicity, as well as maintained a balance between the minority communities of both countries (Turks in Greece and Greeks in Turkey) on reciprocal obligations toward each of those minorities. The Treaty contained specific obligations for their cultural and religious rights. These have been largely respected, in contrast to measures taken by successive Turkish governments against the Greek minority in Turkey (like forced labor battalions, the Istanbul pogrom and Varlik Vergisi), a minority that is nearly eliminated today (from 70,000 in 1923 to 3,000 in 2000).Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe: p. 8–9
Politics
Members of the Greek Parliament In 1990 a new electoral law was enacted in Greece, which set a threshold of at least 3% of the nationwide vote for a party to be represented in the parliament. Consequently, independent Turkish MPs were barred from election at the 1993 elections. Since then the Turkish minority in the Hellenic Parliament has been represented by Turkish deputies belonging to nationwide political parties, and the Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace, which succeeded the Independent Muslim List in 1991, practically disappeared from the electoral scene. Turkish MPs from Rhodopi and Xanthi election elected Turkish MPs 1989 (June) Sadik Achmet (Independent Muslim List) 1989 (November) Ismail Molla (Independent Muslim List) 1990 Sadik Achmet, Achmet Faikoglou (Independent Muslim List) 1993 none 1996 Moustafa Moustafa (Synaspismós), Galip Galip (PASOK, architect),son of the former MP Hajihafuz Ali Galip Sampachedin Birol Akifoglou (ND) 2000 Galip Galip (PASOK), Mechmet Achmet (PASOK; Mechmet Achmet, already elected in 1981, was not directly elected in 2000, but he acted so that the elected MP, Hrissa Manolia, was forced to abandon her seat because she had not relinquished her other political mandate at the local level) 2004 Ilchan Achmet (New Democracy, lawyer) 2007 Tsetin Mantatzi (PASOK), Achmet Chatziosman (PASOK) 2009 Tsetin Mantatzi (PASOK), Achmet Chatziosman (PASOK) 2012 Aichan Kara Giousouf (Syriza, dentist), Chousein Zeimpek (Syriza, pharmacist), Achmet Chatziosman (PASOK)Tsetin Mantatzi, who was running as an independent after having been expelled with other anti-debt plan dissenters from the PASOK, was not reelected 2015Rhodopi: Moustafa Moustafa, Aichan Kara Giousouf (Syriza) . Xanthi: Chousein Zeimpek (Syriza)
Greek legislative election, 2009 There are presently two Turkish MPs from the Western Thrace portion of East Macedonia and Thrace, both of whom are affiliated to the Panhellenic Socialist Movement: Tsetin Mantatzi (Xanthi) and Achmet Chatziosman (Rhodope), former president (1999–2007) of the Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace created by former (1989) MP Sadik Achmet in 1991.Βιογραφικά – ΟΣΜΑΝ ΑΧΜΕΤ ΧΑΤΖΗ, ΒΟΥΛΕΥΤΗΣ ΡΟΔΟΠΗΣ, ΣΗΜΑ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΝΕΛΛΗΝΙΟΥ ΣΟΣΙΑΛΙΣΤΙΚΟΥ ΚΙΝΗΜΑΤΟΣ , Βουλή των Ελλήνων, accessed on September 24, 2009
At least 14 candidates from the Turkish minority have been nominated, mainly in Rhodope and Xanthi.Chris Loutradis, Turkish candidate stirs debate in Greek polls, Hürriyet Daily News, September 22, 2009, accessed on September 24, 2009