Western Thrace

"Thraki" redirects here. For ships named Thraki, see SS Thraki.

Thrace Θράκη
Traditional region of Greece
Thrace (blue) within Greece
Cession	1920
Replaced as administrative region by Eastern Macedonia and Thrace	1987
Capital	Komotini
Regional units	List Xanthi Rhodope Evros
Government
• Deputy Minister	Stavros Kalafatis (New Democracy)
Area
• Total	8,578 km2 (3,312 sq mi)
Population
• Total	371,208 (2011 census)
• Density	43/km2 (110/sq mi)
Demonym	Thracian
Largest City	Alexandroupolis
Website	www.pamth.gov.gr

Western Thrace or West Thrace (Greek: [Δυτική] Θράκη, [Dytikí] Thráki [ˈθraci]) also known as Greek Thrace or Aegean Thrace, is a geographic and historical region of Greece, between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country; East Thrace, which lies east of the river Evros, forms the European part of Turkey, and the area to the north, in Bulgaria, is known as Northern Thrace.

Inhabited since paleolithic times, it has been under the political, cultural and linguistic influence of the Greek world since the classical era; Greeks from the Aegean islands extensively colonized the region (especially the coastal part) and built prosperous cities such as Abdera (home of Democritus, the 5th-century B.C. philosopher who developed an atomic particle theory, and of Protagoras, a leading sophist) and Sale (near present-day Alexandroupolis). 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 (former prefectures): Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros, which together with the Macedonian regional units of Drama, Kavala and Thasos form the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace.

The 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.

Demographics

Flag of revolutionaries of Western Thrace and Samothrace during the Greek War of Independence

The approximate area of Western Thrace is 8,578 km² with a population of 371,208 according to the 2011 census. It is estimated that two-thirds (67%) of the population are Orthodox Christian Greeks, while about a third (33%) are Muslims who are an officially recognised minority of Greece. Of these, about a quarter 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 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 Greek region of Macedonia to the west. Alexandroupolis is the largest city, with a municipal population of 72,959 according to the 2011 census. Below is a table of the five largest Thracian cities:

City	Greek	Town/city population (2011)	Municipality population (2011)
Alexandroupolis	Αλεξανδρούπολη	58,125	72,959
Komotini	Κομοτηνή	54,272	66,919
Xanthi	Ξάνθη	56,151	65,133
Orestiada	Ορεστιάδα	20,211	37,695
Didymoteicho	Διδυμότειχο	9,367	19,493

History

See also: History of Thrace and Greece during World War I

Ruins of the ancient city of Abdera

The ancient theatre of Maroneia

Roman mosaics in Plotinopolis, modern Didymoteicho

After the Roman conquest, Western Thrace further belonged to the Roman province of Thracia founded in 46 AD. At the beginning of the 2nd AD century Roman emperor Trajan founded here, as a part of the provincial policy, two cities of Greek type (i.e. city-states), Traianoupolis and Plotinopolis. From this region passed the famous Via Egnatia, which ensured the communication between East and West, while its ramifications were connecting the Aegean world with Thracian hinterland (i.e. upper and middle valley of Evros river). From the coast also passed the sea route Troad–Macedonia, which the Apostle Paul had used in his journeys in Greece. During the great crisis of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD, Western Thrace suffered from the frequent incursions of the barbarians until the reign of Diocletian, when it managed to prosper again thanks to its administrative reforms.

The region had been under the rule of the Byzantine Empire from the time of the division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western empires in the early fourth century AD. The Ottoman Empire conquered most of the region in the 14th century and ruled it until the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. During Ottoman rule, Thrace had a mixed population of Turks and Bulgarians, with a strong Greek element in the cities and the Aegean Sea littoral. A smaller number of Pomaks, Jews, Armenians and Romani also lived in the region. At 1821, several parts of Western Thrace, such as Lavara, Maroneia, and Samothraki rebelled and participated in the Greek War of Independence.

Greek administration stamp in Western Thrace, 1920

During the First Balkan War, the Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and 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 15 November 1912, on the right bank of the river Maritza, Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps captured the Turkish corps of Yaver Paha, which defended Eastern Rhodopes and Western Thrace from invading Bulgarians.

View of the old town of Xanthi

The victors quickly fell into dispute on how to divide the newly conquered lands, resulting in the Second Balkan War. In August 1913, Bulgaria was defeated, but kept Western Thrace under the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest.

In the following years, the Central Powers (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. Western Thrace was under temporary management of the Entente led by French General Charles Antoine Charpy. In late April 1920, as per the San Remo conference which 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 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.

This was followed by the large-scale 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 Greek minority in Istanbul and the Aegean islands of Imbros and Tenedos.

After the 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 (1941–1944) the demographic distribution was further changed, with the 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.

Economy

Old silk factory in Soufli

The economy of Thrace in recent years has become less dependent on agriculture. A number of Greek-owned high-tech telecommunications companies have settled in the area. The 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 Rhodopi mountains, the natural border with Bulgaria, which are covered by dense forest.

Religion

Kimisis Tis Theotokou, Greek Orthodox Church, Komotini, West Thrace

Eski Mosque in Komotini

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.

Of the Muslim minority:

• Turkish: ~35%
• 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 Turkish minority even though it actually consists of multiple ethnic groups. In his 7 December 2017 visit to Greece Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, acknowledged for the first time the multi-ethnic nature of the Western Thracian Muslim minority.

Jews and the Holocaust

Before World War 2 Western Thrace was home to a Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish population. After Greece was occupied by Axis forces, around 4,075 Jews living in Western Thrace and Macedonia were sent to Treblinka extermination camp and were murdered.

Historical demographics

The port of Alexandroupolis

Orestiada

Samothrace island

The last censuses which asked about ethnicity were held in the transitional period before the region became part of Greece. 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:

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 (Muslims) following the Ottoman system of classifying people according to religion, while in other occasions was specified separately. According to the Bulgarian view, they are considered "Bulgarian Muslims" and an integral part of the Bulgarian nation.

By the Bulgarian census in 1919, held on the request of the Entente, of the population of Western Thrace was 219,723 of whom: Turks 35.4% (77,726 Muslims), Bulgarians 46.3% (101,766 - 81,457 Christians and 20 309 Muslims), Greeks 14.8% (32,553 Christians), Jews 1.4% (3,066) Armenians 1.5% (2,369), others 0,9% (1,243). The area ceded to the Entente also included Karaagach and its environs, which became part of Turkey after the Treaty of Lausanne.

1919 Bulgarian Census of Western Thrace
Districts	Total	Turks	Bulgarian Christians	Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks)	Greeks	Jews	Armenians	Others
Karaagach	25,669	-	12,874	-	11,133	284	835	443
Dimotika	25,081	581	6,070	-	16,856	1,152	298	47
Soflu	16,748	339	12,280	-	4,097	9	21	50
Dedeagach	18,380	625	17,036	-	18	164	465	72
Gumurdjina	92,235	55,754	21,879	10,802	364	1,200	650	1,579
Xanthi	41,619	20,350	10,575	9,500	85	250	100	-
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, 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 Xanthi, who left massively the Xanthi district after the Balkan wars (1913), returned.

Census in 1920 conducted by the Entente Powers in Western Thrace.
Districts	Total	Turks	Bulgarians	Pomaks (Bulgarian Muslims)	Greeks	Jews	Armenians	Others
Karaagach	27,193	5	10,200	-	15,045	370	450	1,123
Dimotika	26,313	1,247	4,956	-	18,856	878	157	192
Soflu	21,250	2,770	10,995	-	7,435	-	-	50
Dedeagach	16,317	640	11,543	-	3,355	165	512	102
Komotini	64,961	39,601	14,794	2,341	4,773	1,292	651	1,559
Xanthi	48,666	30,538	1,591	9,507	6,650	280	200	-
Total	204,700	74,720 (36.5%)	54,079 (26.4%)	11,848 (5,8%)	56,114 (27.4%)	2,985 (1.5%)	1,880 (0.9%)	3,066 (1.5%)

According to the Turkish researches the population of Western Thrace in 1923 was 191,699, of whom 129,120 (67%) were Turks/Muslims (also includes the Pomaks) and 33,910 (18%) were Greeks; the remaining 28,669 (15%) were mostly (Christian) Bulgarians, along with small numbers of Jews and Armenians (before the population exchange).

General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace in 1923, prior to the Greek-Turkish population exchange, according to Turkish claims (based on of 1913)
Districts	Total	Turks	Greeks	Bulgarians	Jews	Armenians
Soufli	31,768	14,736	11,542	5,490	-	-
Alexandroupolis	27,473	11,744	4,800	10,227	253	449
Komotini	80,165	59,967	8,834	9,997	1,007	360
Xanthi	52, 255	42,671	8,728	522	220	114
Total	191,699	129,120 (67,4%)	33,910 (17,7%)	26,266 (13,7%)	1,480 (0,8%)	923 (0,5%)

General Distribution of Population in Western Thrace in 1923, according to Greek delegation in Laussane
Districts	Total	Greeks	Turks	Bulgarians	Jews	Armenians
Didymoteicho	34,621	31,408	3,213	-	-	-
Soufli	32,299	25,758	5,454	1,117	-	-
Orestiada	39,386	33,764	6,072	-	-	-
Alexandroupolis	38,553	26,856	2,705	9,102	-	-
Komotini	104,108	45,516	50,081	6,609	1,112	1,183
Xanthi	64,744	36,859	27,882	-	-	-
Total	314,235	199,704 (63,6%)	95,407 (30,4%)	16,828 (5,4%)	1,112 (0,4%)	1,183 (0,4%)

The population of the region, according to the official census of 1928 and 1951 conducted by the local authorities, per mother tongue, was as follows:

Population in Western Thrace per mother tongue, 1928 (official census)
Prefectures	Total	Greek	Turkish	Slavic	Aromanian	Albanian	Pomak	Jewish	Other
Evros	122,730	102,688	16,626	520	5	9	2	1,010	1,870
Xanthi	89,266	44,343	27,562	294	37	175	14,257	694	1,904
Rodopi	91,175	36,216	49,521	245	26	21	2,481	1,178	1,487
Total	303,171	183,247 (60,4%)	93,709 (30,9%)	1,059 (0,3%)	68 (<0,1%)	205 (<0,1%)	16,740 (5,5%)	2,882 (1%)	5,261 (1,7%)

Population in Western Thrace per mother tongue, 1951 (official census)
Prefectures	Total	Greek	Turkish	Slavic	Aromanian	Albanian	Pomak	Jewish	Other
Evros	141,340	126,229	10,061	0	18	4,121	112	18	781
Xanthi	89,891	46,147	26,010	8	5	354	16,926	2	439
Rodopi	105,723	45,505	57,785	0	2	5	1,628	8	790
Total	336,954	217,881 (64,7%)	93,856 (27,9%)	8 (<0,1%)	25 (<0,1%)	4,480 (1,3%)	18,666 (5,5%)	28 (<0,1%)	2,010 (1,7%)

Miscellaneous

Nestos river outside the city of Xanthi

• Abdera, an ancient Greek coastal town in the regional unit of Xanthi, is the birthplace of the Greek philosophers 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, Afghans, Pakistanis) trying to enter Europe.

See also

• Northern Thrace
• Eastern Thrace
• Thrace
• Thracians
• List of Thracian Greeks
• Turks of Western Thrace
• Pomaks
• Muslim minority of Greece
• Provisional Government of Western Thrace
• Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
• Democritus University of Thrace
• The Holocaust in Bulgarian-occupied Greece

Bibliography

• Öksüz, Hikmet (2004), The Reasons for Immigration from Western Thrace to Turkey (1923-1950) (PDF), Turkish Review of Balkan Studies
• Whitman, Lois (1990), Destroying ethnic identity: the Turks of Greece, Human Rights Watch, ISBN 0-929692-70-5.

External links

• Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Archived 2005-05-29 at the Wayback Machine
• Combined Prefectural Authority of Drama, Kavala and Xanthi
• Combined Prefectural Authority of Rhodope and Evros Archived 2012-09-09 at archive.today
• Prefecture of Xanthi
• Thrakiki.gr
• Prefecture of Rhodope
• Prefecture of Evros Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Democritus University of Thrace
• Municipality of Feres