Where is Western Thrace located?
As one the nine geographical regions of Greece, Western Thrace is situated between Evros River on Greece's eastern border with Turkey, Nestos River as a borderline with Greece's Macedonia Region, the Rodopi Mountains which consitutes Greece's border with Bulgaria and Aegean sea in the south. Western Thrace is 8.578 km² large and covers the prefectures of Xanthi, Komotini and Alexandroupolis. The population in Western Thrace amounts to 350.000 and approximately 150.000 out of this number is the population of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace.
Brief History of Western Thrace
While today Western Thrace is one of the nine regions of Greece, it has been a fertile region accommodating folks since 2000 B.C. The name of the region originates from its first inhabitants, who were Thracians, an Indo-European folk. From the 7th century BC on, Western Thrace has been under sovereignty of Persian, Greek and Macedonian civilizations and until 335 BC Thracian Kingdom reinged in the region. In the later periods, Western Thrace were under the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Presence of Turkish population in the region dates back to Scythian Turks' arrival to Balkans in 2nd century BC as well as the migration of Central Asian tribes to the West.
Huns settled to the region in 4th century, Avars in 5th century, Pechenegs (Patzinaks) in 9th century and Kumans arrived in 11th century to live on Western Thrace territories. Having started from a Turkish settlement in Asia Minor, the progressive approach of Ottoman State steered by invaluable commanders like Lala Şahin Paşa, Evrenos Bey and Hayrettin Paşa since the Sultan Murat I. resulted in Western Thrace entirely conquered between 1363-1374.
According to figures provided by historians, some Muslim Turkish tribes migrated from Asia Minor have been living in Western Thrace also before 1363. For instance, in Kırmahalle Mosque in Komotini there is a gravestone with date 1185. Equally, the gravestone with date 1200 in Darmeni Cemetery of Ariana Municipality shows the presence of Turkish Muslim population in the region before 1363. Turks came to Western Thrace from Asia Minor centuries ago and adopted it as their homeland. Yet, the demise of Ottoman Empire brought out a disaster for Western Thrace Turks.
First Turkish Republic in history was founded in Western Thrace in 31 August 1913. Having declared independence, the new republic first of all defined the borders of the country, placed the flag on state buildings as a symbol of independent state, set an army of 29,170 persons, made the state budget, issued its own money and adopted a passport policy for crossborder mobility. At the same time, the Ottoman legislation has fully been adopted and judicial matters were viewed by Western Thrace Court. Besides, an official news agency was established and the initiative was taken to publish a daily called „Independent“ in French and Turkish. Yet, the Ottoman Empire then pursued its Balkan politics from a different angle. In fact, the internal political power struggle in Istanbul deceived the chances of channeling any attention to newly established independent Turkish state in Western Thrace. Conclusive to the politicial conjucture, Western Thrace was entirely left to Bulgaria as a result of Istanbul Treaty signed on 29 October 1913.
Caused by Greece joining to World War I. in 1917 against Germany, Western Thrace, which was previously left to Bulgaria, was transfered to Greece. This was confirmed at Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Greece sought for legal justification of its ownership over Western Thrace by calling for referendum. As a matter of fact, as a result of referendum held in Western Thrace on 27 November 1919 the region was annexed to Greece. The Lausanne Peace Treaty signed in 1923 confimed Western Thrace as part of Greek territories. Therefore, by Lausanne Treaty signed in 1923 Western Thrace Turks were entrusted to Greece with Minority status.
