Introduction to Western Thrace
Introduction to Western Thrace
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Western Thrace is located in northeastern Greece, bordered by Bulgaria to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and Turkey to the east. It is part of the administrative region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
Western Thrace or West Thrace, also known as Greek Thrace or Aegean Thrace, is a geographical and historical region of Greece, between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country.
East Thrace, which lies east of the river Evros, forms the European part of Turkey, and the area to the north, in Bulgaria, is known as Northern Thrace.
Administrative and Demographic Overview
Administrative and Demographic Overview
Western Thrace includes the regional units of Xanthi, Rhodope, and Evros within the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace administrative region of Greece.
As of the most recent census, the region has a population of around 365,000 people, with a significant Muslim minority, estimated at approximately 120,000–130,000 people.
This minority includes ethnic Turks, Pomaks (Slavic-speaking Muslims), and Roma communities, all officially recognized as "Muslims of Thrace" under Greek law and the Treaty of Lausanne (1923).
The Treaty of Lausanne is an international law dating back to 1923. A Peace Conference was held in Lausanne at the end of the Greco-Turkish war in 1922 that also marked the birth of the Republic of Turkey. In an era of radical nationalism, the first agreement in Lausanne was a compulsory exchange of populations - a mild yet, at this scale, unprecedented means of ethnic cleansing: ‘Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox religion’ had to move to Greece and the ‘Greek nationals of the Moslem religion’ had to move to Turkey.
From the exchange were exempted the ‘Muslims’ of Western Thrace and the Greek-Orthodox from Istanbul, Gökçeada and Bozcaada, creating the respective minorities in either country. Due to a series of discriminatory measures and a pogrom followed later by expulsions, the number of Greek minority members in Turkey has dramatically diminished to virtual non-existence. The Turco-Muslim minority group in Greece, a largely rural population in the North of the country, has kept more or less its number, having suffered nonetheless decades of overt institutionalized discrimination that was only officially denounced in the 1990s.
Western Thrace has long been a strategic area due to its location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, near key land and maritime routes.
It has historically served as a buffer zone and point of contact between major empires, including the Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern European states.
The region continues to be of geostrategic and diplomatic interest, particularly due to its ethnic composition, minority rights, and its proximity to Turkey, a NATO member with historic ties to the Muslim population in the area.
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