History
See also: Ottoman Greece, Provisional Government of Western Thrace, and Population exchange between Greece and TurkeyWestern Thrace became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1354 and remained in Ottoman control until 1913. At this year, the Turkish community outnumbered 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 to 400,000 Turks have left Western Thrace most of which have immigrated to Turkey.
A number of estimates and censuses during the 1912-1920 period gave the following results about the ethnic distribution of the area that would became 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 occassions 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) and the subsequent population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Of all Greek Asia Minor refugees (578,824 individuals), 31% 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%) |
Read more about this topic: Turks Of Western Thrace
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