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Turks of Western Thrace (, ) 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 Turks in Western Thrace, out of the approximately 98,000 strong Muslim minority of Greece.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Muslim Minority of Greek Thrace )〕 Other sources estimate the size of the Turkish community between 120,000 and 130,000.〔.〕〔.〕 The Turks of Western Thrace are not to be confused with Pomaks nor with Muslim Roma people of the same region, counting 35% and 15% of the Muslim minority respectively.〔(Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, Υπηρεσία Ενημέρωσης: Μουσουλμάνικη μειονότητα Θράκης )〕〔Greek Helsinki Monitor: (Religious freedom in Greece )〕 The Greek government has adopted a policy of not referring to the Turkish community specifically, and instead refers to the entire Muslim minority which includes Pomaks and Roma Muslims, and does not recognize a separate Turkish minority in Western Thrace,〔 instead referring to the whole Muslim minority as "Greek Muslims". The fundamental rights of the Turks of East Macedonia and Thrace are enshrined in the Greek constitution and the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey, which states Greece's obligations to its Muslim minority. == History == Parts of Western Thrace were overrun by the expanding 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.〔.〕〔.〕 It should be emphasised that the actual Ottoman-era Greek Muslims of Macedonia had been included among those 'Turks' expatriated to Turkey in 1924. including the Vallahades. In contrast, the Western Thrace Turks are completely distinct from those referred to as Greek Muslims and were exempt from the terms of the population exchange. A number of estimates and censuses during the 1912-1920 period gave the following results about the ethnic distribution of the area that would become known as Western Thrace:〔 〕 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 occasions 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:〔.〕 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.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Turks of Western Thrace」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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