Language Diversity - Language Diversity - Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe for and about linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe.

Minority

Turks in Greece (Turks)

Description

There are 150,000 Turks living In Western Thrace, the region in the northeast of Greece between the river Marica that forms the border between Turkey and Greece and the river Nestos. During the Ottoman conquests of the Balkans they came to the region and settled there.

In the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, minority rights were guaranteed for the 150,000 Turks and the regions was given to Greece. Nevertheless the Western Thrace Turks have to fight against assimilation. Nowadays they are a minority who are prodominantly living in diaspora.

Size of the minority

59,000 (Pan) / 120,000 (Euromosaic) / 128,000 (Ethnologue)

Language

Turkish (128.000 Speaker)