The ethnic Turkish minority in western Thrace, Greece

In Greeee there is an ethnie Turkish minority,l whose religious affiliation is Islam. The Turks are the most numeraus (about 130,(00) among the minorities in Greece although theyare not the only one.2 The ethnie Torks are coneentrated in a smaIl (8578 sq. km.) Balkan terrllOrycalled 'Westem Thrace', whieh is bordered on the east by Turkey, on the west by the Greek part of Maeedonia, on the north by Bulgaria and on the south by the Aegean Sea. The area stretehes from the Mantza (Meriç) river in the east as far as the Mesta (Karasu) river in the west. The region inc1udesthe Rhodope mountains in the north. The Maritza river divides modem Thrace inlO the 'Eastem' (or Turkish) and the 'Western' (or Greek) portions. A part of Thrace is, then, within the borders of European Turkey.