Western Thrace
Western Thrace, also known as Greek Thrace or Aegean Thrace, is a geographical and historical region of Greece, between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. It is the western part of Thrace; 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. Greek Thrace is divided into three regional units : Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros, which together with the Macedonian regional units of Drama, Kavala and Thasos form the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The largest city of the region is Alexandroupolis.
Inhabited since Paleolithic times, it has been under the political, cultural and linguistic influence of the Greek world since the classical era. Under the Byzantine Empire, Western Thrace was part of the theme of Thrace and then of Macedonia and 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.
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
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 of the population are Orthodox Christian Greeks, while about a third 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 Greek Muslims 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.Greek Thrace is bordered by Bulgaria to the north, Turkey to the east, the Aegean Sea to the south and Greek 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 | Municipality population |
| 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
Ancient Era
extensively colonized the region, especially the coastal part, and built prosperous cities such as Sale, Maroneia and Abdera, which was home of Democritus, the 5th-century BC philosopher who developed an atomic particle theory, and of Protagoras, a leading sophist.The first to take greater control of Thrace, in part or whole, was the Achaemenid Empire in the late 6th century BC. The region was incorporated into their empire as the Satrapy of Skudra, after the Scythian campaign of Darius the Great. Thracian soldiers were used in Persian armies and are depicted in carvings of the Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam.
Persians' presence in Thracia lasted up until the rise of the Delian league led by Athens in the 5th century BC. Cities like Sale, Maroneia and Abdera became members of the Delian league.
In the 4th century BC most of Thrace was conquered by Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. Notably, Thracian troops are known to have accompanied Alexander when he crossed the Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during the invasion of the Achaemenid Empire.
It then passed to Lysimachus when Alexander's empire was divided between his generals. Lysimachus ruled as king up until his defeat from Seleucus I Nicator in 281 BC at the battle of Corupedium.
Roman and Byzantine era
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, 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. 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. It was part of the theme of Thrace and then part of the theme of Macedonia, from where the Macedonian dynasty originated. The core area of the old theme of Macedonia was recorded as the "province of Adrianople and Didymoteichon". The emperor of Nicaea, John III Doukas Vatatzes, was born in Didymoteicho, and was probably the son of the general Basil Vatatzes, who was killed in battle in 1194, and his wife, a cousin of the Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos.
Ottoman and Modern era
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 Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians. 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.During the First Balkan War, the Balkan League 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.
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, 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, 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, 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, the area was occupied by Bulgarian troops, as part of the triple Axis occupation of Greece, during World War II. During this period 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
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 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
It is estimated that two-thirds of the population are Orthodox Christian Greeks while about a third are part of the recognized Muslim minority of Greece.Of the Muslim minority:
- Turkish: ~35%
- Pomaks: ~35%
- Roma people: ~15%
- ethnic Greek Muslims: ~15%