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{{Short description|Geographical and historical region of Greece}}
{{Redirect|Thraki|ships named Thraki|SS Arietta{{!}}SS Thraki}}
 
{{Infobox settlement
<!-- See Template:Infobox settlement for additional fields and descriptions -->
| name = Thrace
| native_name = Θράκη
| native_name_lang = el
| settlement_type = [[TraditionalGeographic geographic divisionsregions of Greece|Traditional region]] [[Greece|of Greece]]
| image_flag =
| image_seal =
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| established_title = Cession
| established_date = 1920
| extinct_title = Replaced as [[administrative regions of Greece|administrative region]] by [[Eastern Macedonia and Thrace]]
| extinct_date = 1987
| seat_type = Capital
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}}
 
'''Western Thrace''' or '''West Thrace''' ({{lang-langx|el|[Δυτική] Θράκη}}, ''[Dytikí] Thráki'' {{IPA-el|ˈθraci|}};) {{lang-tr|also Batıknown Trakya}}; {{lang-bg|Западна/Беломорска Тракия}},as ''Zapadna/Belomorska'Greek TrakiyaThrace'''), also known asor '''GreekAegean Thrace''', is a [[Geographygeography|geographicgeographical]] and [[Historyhistory|historical]] [[geographic regions of Greece|region]] of [[Greece]], between the [[Mesta River|Nestos]] and [[Maritsa|Evros]] [[river]]s in the northeast of the country; [[East Thrace]], which lies east of the river Evros, forms the [[Europe]]an part of [[Turkey]], and the area to the north, in [[Bulgaria]], is known as [[Northern Thrace]].
 
Inhabited since [[paleolithic|paleolithic times]], it has been under the [[Politicspolitics|political]], [[Cultureculture|cultural]] and [[Linguisticslinguistics|linguistic]] influence of the [[Greeks|Greek world]] since the [[Classicalclassical antiquity|classical era]];<ref name="britannica.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Thrace|title=Thrace - region, Europe|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://62.217.125.50/jspui/handle/123456789/27369|title=Ο εξελληνισμός της Θράκης κατά την Ελληνική και Ρωμαϊκή αρχαιότητα|first=Δημήτριος Κ|last=Σαμσάρης|date=14 January 1980|via=olympias.lib.uoi.gr|access-date=14 January 2019|archive-date=14 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190114210743/http://62.217.125.50/jspui/handle/123456789/27369|url-status=dead}}</ref> Greeks from the [[List of islands of Greece|Aegean islands]] extensively colonized the region (especially the coastal part) and built prosperous cities such as [[Abdera, Thrace|Abdera]] (home of [[Democritus]], the 5th-century B.C. philosopher who developed an atomic particle theory, and of [[Protagoras]], a leading [[sophists|sophist]]) and [[Sale (Thrace)|Sale]] (near present-day Alexandroupolis).<ref name="britannica.com"/> Under the [[Byzantine Empire]], Western Thrace benefited from its position close to the imperial heartland and became a center of [[medieval Greek]] [[commerce]] and culture; later, under the [[Ottoman Empire]], a number of [[Muslims]] settled there, marking the birth of the [[Muslim minority of Greece]].
 
Topographically, Thrace alternates between mountain-enclosed basins of varying size and deeply cut river valleys. It is divided into the three [[regional units of Greece|regional units]] (former [[prefectures of Greece|prefectures]]): [[Xanthi (regional unit)|Xanthi]], [[Rhodope (regional unit)|Rhodope]] and [[Evros (regional unit)|Evros]], which together with the [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonian]] regional units of [[Drama (regional unit)|Drama]], [[Kavala (regional unit)|Kavala]] and [[Thasos]] form the [[Administrative regions of Greece|Regionregion]] of [[East Macedonia and Thrace]].
 
The [[IV Army Corps (Greece)|Fourth Army Corps]] of the [[Hellenic Army]] has its headquarters in [[Xanthi]]; in recent years, the region has attracted international media attention after becoming a key entering point for illegal immigrants trying to enter [[European Union]] territory; Greek security forces, working together with [[Frontex]], are also extensively deployed in the Greco-Turkish land border.
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[[File:Greek flag (black cross).svg|thumb|200px|Flag of revolutionaries of Western Thrace and Samothrace during the [[Greek War of Independence]]]]
 
The approximate area of Western Thrace is 8,578&nbsp;[[Square kilometre|km<sup>2</sup>]] with a [[population]] of 371,208 according to the 2011 [[Census in Greece|census]].<ref name="2011 census">{{cite web|title=Announcement of the results of the 2011 Population Census for the Resident Population|url=http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/BUCKET/A1602/PressReleases/A1602_SAM01_DT_DC_00_2011_02_F_EN.pdf|publisher=Hellenic Statistical Authority|access-date=18 October 2013|location=Piraeus|date=28 December 2012|archive-date=13 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113172928/http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/BUCKET/A1602/PressReleases/A1602_SAM01_DT_DC_00_2011_02_F_EN.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> It's is estimated that two-thirds (67%) of the population are [[Greek Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[Christians|Christian]] [[Greeks]], while about a third (33%) are [[Muslim minority of Greece|Muslims]] who are an officially recognised minority of Greece. Of these, about a quarter [[Turks of Western Thrace|are of Turkish origin]], while another quarter are [[Pomaks]] who mainly inhabit the mountainous parts of the region. The rest are Muslim Greeks or Romani. The [[Romani people|Romani]] of Thrace are also mainly Muslim, unlike their ethnic kin in other parts of the country who generally profess the Orthodox faith of the Greek majority.
 
Thrace is bordered by [[Bulgaria]] to the north, [[Turkey]] to the east, the [[Aegean Sea]] (Greece) to the south and the [[Macedonia (Greece)|Greek region of Macedonia]] to the west. Alexandroupolis is the largest [[city]], with a municipal population of 72,959 according to the 2011 census.<ref name="2011 census" /> Below is a table of the five largest Thracian cities:<ref name="2011 census" />
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[[File:Stamp Thrace Greek occ 1920 2l ovpt.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Greek administration stamp in Western Thrace, 1920]]
 
During the [[Balkan Wars|First Balkan War]], the [[Balkan League]] ([[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]], [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] and [[Kingdom of Montenegro|Montenegro]]) fought against the [[Ottoman Empire]] and annexed most of its European territory, including Thrace. Western Thrace was occupied by Bulgarian troops who defeated the Ottoman army. On November 15, November 1912, on the right bank of the river [[Maritsa|Maritza]], [[Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps]] captured the Turkish corps of Yaver Paha, which defended Eastern [[Rhodopes]] and Western Thrace from invading Bulgarians.
 
[[File:Το Αρχοντικό Κουγιουμτζόγλου, στα σοκάκια της παλιάς πόλης της Ξάνθης - panoramio.jpg|thumb|View of the old town of [[Xanthi]]]]
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The victors quickly fell into dispute on how to divide the newly conquered lands, resulting in the [[Balkan Wars|Second Balkan War]]. In August 1913, Bulgaria was defeated, but kept Western Thrace under the terms of the [[Treaty of Bucharest, 1913|Treaty of Bucharest]].
 
In the following years, the [[Central Powers]] ([[German Empire|Germany]], [[Austria-Hungary]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]]), with which Bulgaria had sided, lost [[World War I]], and as a result, Bulgaria had to surrender Western Thrace under the terms of the 1919 [[Treaty of Neuilly]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/|title=World War I Document Archive|website=wwi.lib.byu.edu}}</ref> Western Thrace was under temporary management of the [[Allies of World War I|Entente]] led by French General Charles Antoine Charpy. In late April 1920, as per the [[San Remo conference]] withwhich gathered the leaders of the main allies of the Entente powers (except the US), Western Thrace was given to Greece.
 
Throughout the [[Balkan Wars]] and [[World War I]], [[Bulgaria]], Greece and [[Turkey]] each forced respective minority populations in the [[Thrace]] region out of areas they controlled. A large population of [[Greek refugees|Greeks]] in [[Eastern Thrace]], and [[Black Sea]] coastal and southern Bulgaria, was expelled south and west into Greek-controlled Thrace. Concurrently, a large population of Bulgarians was forced from the region into Bulgaria by Greek and Turkish actions. Turkish populations in the area were also targeted by Bulgarian and Greek forces and pushed eastward. As part of the [[Treaty of Neuilly]] and subsequent agreements, the status of the expelled populations was legitimized. This was followed by a further population exchange which radically changed the demographics of the region toward increased ethnic homogenization within the territories each respective country was ultimately awarded.
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This was followed by the large-scale [[Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey|Greek-Turkish population exchanges of 1923]] ([[Treaty of Lausanne]]), which finalized the reversal of Western and [[Eastern Thrace]] region's pre-Balkan War demography. The treaty granted the status of a minority to the [[Muslims]] in Western Thrace, in exchange for a similar status for the ethnic [[Greeks|Greek]] [[Greeks in Turkey|minority]] in [[Istanbul]] and the Aegean islands of [[Imbros]] and [[Tenedos]].
 
After the [[Battle of Greece|German invasion]] (April 1941), the area was occupied by Bulgarian troops, as part of the triple [[Axis occupation of Greece]], during World War II. During this period (1941-19441941–1944) the demographic distribution was further changed, with the [[The Holocaust in Bulgarian-occupied Greece|arrest of the region's approximately 4,500 Jews by the Bulgarian police]] and their deportation to death camps administered by Germany. None of them survived.<ref>{{cite book|last=(eds.)|first=Bruno De Wever ...|title=Local government in occupied Europe : (1939 - 1945)|year=2006|publisher=Academia Press|location=Gent|isbn=978-90-382-0892-3|pages=206}}</ref>
 
==Economy==
[[File:ImagevisitTzivreSoufli.jpg|thumb|200px|Old silk factory in [[Soufli]]]]
 
The economy of Thrace in recent years{{when|date=April 2019}} has become less dependent on agriculture. A number of Greek-owned high-tech industries belonging to the telecommunications industrycompanies have settled in the area. The [[EgnatiaA2 Odosmotorway (modern roadGreece)|A2 motorway]] (Egnatia Odos]]) motorway which passes through Thrace, has contributed to the further development of the region. Tourism is slowly becoming more and more important as the Aegean coast has a number of beaches, and there is also the potential for winter tourism activities in the [[Rhodope mountains|Rhodopi mountains]]{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}, the natural border with Bulgaria, which are covered by dense forest.
 
==PoliticsReligion==
[[File:2012071820120508 EskiGreek Mosqueorthodox Church Panagias Komotini West Thrace Greece Panoramic.jpg|thumb|200px|Kimisis Tis Theotokou, [[OldGreek MosqueOrthodox (Komotini)|Eski MosqueChurch]] in, [[Komotini]], West Thrace]]
[[File:20120718 Eski Mosque Komotini Thrace Greece Panoramic.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Old Mosque (Komotini)|Eski Mosque]] in Komotini]]
[[File:Komotini holocaust memorial c.jpg|thumb|200px|[[The Holocaust in Bulgarian-occupied Greece|Holocaust]] Memorial]]
 
It's estimated that two-thirds (67%) of the population are Orthodox Christian Greeks while about a third (33%) are part of the recognized Muslim minority of Greece.<ref name="2011 census"/>
The Muslim minority of Thrace are Greek citizens of diverse ethnic origins and is recognised as religious minority in accordance with the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] which Greece has signed with Turkey, and along with the [[Greek Constitution]], enshrines the fundamental rights of the Turks and other ethnic groups of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and the obligations towards them. The [[Government of Greece|Greek government]] is not referring to the Muslim minority by a specific ethnic background, as it includes [[Turks of Western Thrace|Turks]], [[Pomaks]] and [[Muslim Roma|Roma Muslims]].
 
*Of [[Turksthe ofMuslim Western Thrace|Turkish]]minority: ~35%<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patrides.com/march02/pomaki.htm|title=Οι Πομάκοι στη Θράκη|website=www.patrides.com}}</ref>▼
The minority was exempted from the 1922-1923 [[Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey]] and was granted special rights within the framework of the Treaty of Lausanne, such as religious freedom and education in the [[Turkish language]].
* [[Turks of Western Thrace|Turkish]]: ~35%
 
The estimated numbers of the minority's constituent ethnic groups are according to a document of the Greek Consulate in Berlin,{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}} the following:
 
* total number of Muslim minority is approximately 120,000
▲* [[Turks of Western Thrace|Turkish]]: ~35%<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patrides.com/march02/pomaki.htm|title=Οι Πομάκοι στη Θράκη|website=www.patrides.com}}</ref>
* [[Pomaks]]: ~35%
* Roma people: ~15%
* ethnic [[Greek Muslims]]: ~15%
 
Turkey, a signatory state of the Lausanne Treaty, initially claimed the whole of the Muslim minority to be strictly an ethnic [[Turks of Western Thrace|Turkish minority]] even though it actually consists of multiple ethnic groups. However, [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]], duringIn his historic7 December 7, 2017 visit to Greece as [[President of Turkey|Turkish President]] [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]], acknowledged for the first time the multi-ethnic nature of the Western Thracian Muslim minority.<ref>{{cite news|title=No Turkish President Had Gone to Greece in 65 Years. So Why Now?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/08/world/europe/erdogan-turkey-greece.html|work=New York times|date=8 December 2017|access-date=10 December 2017|last1=Magra|first1=Iliana}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Turkish president recognises Pomak element in Thrace, calls them 'compatriots'|date = 8 December 2017|url=http://news.in.gr/english/article/?aid=1500181388|publisher=News.In.gr|access-date=10 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Eight answers to the questions about Erdogan's visit (Original title in Greek: Οκτώ απαντήσεις στις ερωτήσεις για την επίσκεψη Ερντογάν)|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.gr/entry/okto-apanteseis-stis-eroteseis-yia-ten-episkepse-erntoyan_gr_5a2ad0b6e4b0a290f0505214?x89|work=Huffington Post|access-date=10 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=About good neighborly relations, Erdogan stressed from Thrace (Original title in Greek: Για καλή γειτονία Ελλάδας - Τουρκίας έκανε λόγο ο Ερντογάν από τη Θράκη)|url=http://www.efsyn.gr/arthro/stin-komotini-oloklironetai-i-episkepsi-erntogan|publisher=The Editors' Newspaper|access-date=10 December 2017}}</ref>
 
===Jews and the Holocaust===
Before World War 2 Western Thrace was home to a [[Sephardic Jews|Sephardic]] and [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] Jewish population. After Greece was occupied by [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces, around 4,075 Jews living in Western Thrace and Macedonia were sent to [[Treblinka extermination camp]] and were murdered.{{sfn|Bowman|2009|p=16}}
 
==Historical demographics==
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[[File:View of Samothraki.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Samothrace]] island]]
 
The last censuses which asked about ethnicity were held in the transitional period before the region became part of Greece.{{citation needed|date=April 2013}} 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:<ref name="Aarbakke">https://polsci.academia.edu/VemundAarbakke → download THE MUSLIM MINORITY OF GREEK THRACE (pdf)</ref>
 
{| cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width=250 align="center" rules="all" style="margin: 1em; background: #ffffff; border: 2px solid #aaa; font-size: 100%;"
|- bgcolor=#DDDDDD
| colspan=9 align="center"|General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace (1912-19201912–1920)
|- bgcolor=#f0f0f0 align="center"
! Census/Estimate
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| Total || 219,723|| 77,726 (35.4%) || 81,457 (37.1%) || 20,309 (9.2%) || 32,553 (14.8%) || 3,066 (1.4%) || 2,369 (1.5%)|| 2,243 (0.6%)
|}
Western Thrace was ceded to the Entente in December 1919, after which many Bulgarians left the region, while many Greeks moved in. The Government of the Entente (led by French general Sharpe) held its own census in 1920,<ref>L’Echo de Bulgarie, N 1963, 4 mai 1920.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=April 2013}} according to which Western Thrace had a population of 204,700, of whom: Turks 36.5% (74,720 Muslims), Bulgarians 32.2% (65,927 = 54,079 Christians and 11,848 Muslims), Greeks 27.4% (56,114 Christians), Jews 1.5% (2,985) Armenians 0.9% (1,880), others 3,066. At the time this census was conducted, a part of the Greek population of KsanthiXanthi, who left massively the KsanthiXanthi district after the Balkan wars (1913), returned.<ref name=Aarbakke/>▼
[[File:Παραδοσιακή οικία Μεταξάδων Έβρου.jpg|thumb|194x194px|[[Metaxades]]]]
▲Western Thrace was ceded to the Entente in December 1919, after which many Bulgarians left the region, while many Greeks moved in. The Government of the Entente (led by French general Sharpe) held its own census in 1920,<ref>L’Echo de Bulgarie, N 1963, 4 mai 1920.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=April 2013}} according to which Western Thrace had a population of 204,700, of whom: Turks 36.5% (74,720 Muslims), Bulgarians 32.2% (65,927 = 54,079 Christians and 11,848 Muslims), Greeks 27.4% (56,114 Christians), Jews 1.5% (2,985) Armenians 0.9% (1,880), others 3,066. At the time this census was conducted, a part of the Greek population of Ksanthi, who left massively the Ksanthi district after the Balkan wars (1913), returned.<ref name=Aarbakke/>
 
{| cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width=250 align="center" rules="all" style="margin: 1em; background: #ffffff; border: 2px solid #aaa; font-size: 100%;"
|- bgcolor=#DDDDDD
| colspan=9 align="center"|Census in 1920 conducted by the Entente Powers in Western Thrace.<ref name="Aarbakke"/>{{cite book | title=The muslim minority of Greek Thrace | author=Vemund Aarbakke | year=2000 | publisher=Phd thesis / University of Bergen | url=http://www.batitrakya.org/yayinlar/arastirmalar/indir/the-muslim-minority-of-greek-thrace.html}}
</ref>
|- bgcolor=#f0f0f0 align="center"
! Districts
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{| cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width=250 align="center" rules="all" style="margin: 1em; background: #ffffff; border: 2px solid #aaa; font-size: 100%;"
|- bgcolor=#DDDDDD
| colspan=8 align="center" | General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace in 1923, according to Greek delegation in Laussane<ref>{{cite webthesis|last=Huseyinoglu|first=Ali|title=The Development of Minority Education at the South-easternmost Corner of the EU: The Case of Muslim Turks in Western Thrace, Greece|url=http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/39339/1/Huseyinoglu,_Ali_%28secured%29.pdf|publisher=University of Sussex|access-date=2 May 2013|page=123|year=2012|type=thesis }}</ref>
|- bgcolor=#f0f0f0 align="center"
! Districts
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<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Duth-main-logo.png|120px|thumb|Logo of the [[Democritus University of Thrace|Thracian University Democritus]]]] -->
*[[Abdera, Thrace|Abdera]], an ancient Greek coastal town in the regional unit of Xanthi, is the birthplace of the Greek [[philosopher]]s [[Democritus]], considered by some the father of the [[atomic theory]], and [[Protagoras]], who is credited with having invented the role of the professional [[sophist]] or teacher of "virtue".
*Thrace and in particular the [[Rhodope mountains]], its northern mountainous part, is home to one of the two surviving [[brown bear]] (species ''Ursus arctos'') populations in Greece (the other is in the [[Pindus]] mountains, in central Greece).
*The Greek-Turkish border is a major entering point of illegal immigrants from Asia ([[Syrians]], [[Kurds]], [[Demographics of Afghanistan|Afghans]], [[Pakistanis]]) trying to enter Europe.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}
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==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.remth.gr Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050529032032/http://www.remth.gr/ |date=2005-05-29 }}
*[http://www.nestos.gr Combined Prefectural Authority of Drama, Kavala and Xanthi]
*[http://www.nare.gr/ Combined Prefectural Authority of Rhodope and Evros] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120909171957/http://www.nare.gr/ |date=2012-09-09 }}
*[http://www.xanthi.gr Prefecture of Xanthi]
*[http://www.thrakiki.gr Thrakiki.gr]
*[http://www.ndiamrodopis.gr/euro/ Prefecture of Rhodope]
*[http://www.nomevrou.gr/ Prefecture of Evros] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824055321/http://www.nomevrou.gr/ |date=2007-08-24 }}
*[http://www.duth.gr Democritus University of Thrace]
*[http://www.feres.gr Municipality of Feres]
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[[Category:Western Thrace| ]]
[[Category:NorthernEastern GreeceMacedonia and Thrace]]
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