| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 50,000–120,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Western Thrace | |
| Languages | |
| Turkish, Greek | |
| Religion | |
| mostly Sunni Islam, minority Alevism[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Turks |
| Part of a series of articles on |
| Turkish people |
|---|
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Turks of Western Thrace (Turkish: Batı Trakya Türkleri; Greek: Τούρκοι της Δυτικής Θράκης, romanized: Toúrkoi tis Dytikís Thrákis) 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.[2] Other sources estimate the size of the Muslim community between 90,000 and 120,000.[3][4] 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.[5][6]
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,[3] 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.
- ^ Ersan, Mehmet Özgür (17 April 2018). Sarı Saltuk. Salon Yayinlari. p. 9. ISBN 978-605-9530-56-9. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Muslim Minority of Greek Thrace". Retrieved 2010-01-20.
- ^ a b Whitman 1990, i.
- ^ Levinson 1998, 41.
- ^ Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, Υπηρεσία Ενημέρωσης: Μουσουλμάνικη μειονότητα Θράκης
- ^ Greek Helsinki Monitor: Religious freedom in Greece