Panel on Western Thrace Turks Held at Trakya University to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne
According to the statement issued by the university, Associate Professor Dr. Ali Hüseyinoğlu, Deputy Director of the Balkan Research Institute, and Associate Professor Dr. Gizem Alioğlu Çakmak from Yeditepe University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and International Relations, participated as speakers in the online panel.
During the panel, Hüseyinoğlu delivered a presentation titled "Key Issues of Western Thrace Turks from the Treaty of Lausanne to the Present Day," providing information about the history, key characteristics, important dates, and figures related to the Muslim Turkish minority in Western Thrace.
Highlighting that the Western Thrace Turks are the only officially recognized minority in Greece since 1923, Hüseyinoğlu stated:
"The Western Thrace Turks acquired their official minority status following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The main two demographic groups in the Western Thrace region of Greece are Turks and Greeks. According to the latest population census conducted in 2021, the population in the provinces of Xanthi, Rhodope, and Evros was recorded as 346,209. Among them, there are approximately 150,000 Turks."
Associate Professor Dr. Gizem Çakmak from Yeditepe University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and International Relations, evaluated the reflections of Greece's accession to the European Union in 1981 on Western Thrace Turks in her presentation titled "Greece's Europeanization Process and Western Thrace Turks."
