East Thrace or Eastern Thrace, also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the part of Turkey that is geographically in Southeast Europe.
Definition
East Thrace sometimes refers to the eastern part of the historical region of
Thrace. It is also used for the part of Thrace that is inside
Turkey. The area includes all the territories of the Turkish provinces of
Edirne Province, Tekirdağ and Kırklareli, as well as those territories on the European continent of the provinces of Çanakkale and
Istanbul. The land borders of East Thrace were defined by the Treaty of Constantinople (1913) and the Bulgarian-Ottoman convention (1915) and were reaffirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne.
Geography
East Thrace has an area of 23,757 km
2 (9,172 sq mi), 3.1% of Turkey's internal area; the population density is around 515/km
2, compared to about 98/km
2 for Asiatic Turkey. The two continents are separated by the
Dardanelles, the
Bosphorus (collectively known as the
Turkish straits) and the Sea of Marmara, a route of about . The southernmost part of eastern Thrace is called the
Gallipoli peninsula. East Thrace is bordered on the west by
Greece and on the north by
Bulgaria, with the
Aegean Sea to the southwest and the
Black Sea to the northeast.
-
Source: Citypopulation.de mirroring data from: State Institute of Statistics, Republic of Turkey (web).
Climate
The area has a hybrid mediterranean climate/humid subtropical climate on the Aegean Sea coast and the Marmara Sea coast, and an
oceanic climate on the Black Sea coast. Summers are warm to hot, humid and moderately dry whereas winters are cold and wet and sometimes snowy. The coastal climate keeps the temperatures relatively mild.
History
East Thrace was the setting for several important events in history and legend, including:
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In 1000 BCE, Thracian tribes found the settlements of Lygos and Semistra; Plinius mentions the founding of Semistra in his histories and traces of Lygos remain near Seraglio Point.
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The Greek myth of Hero and Leander takes place in the ancient city of Sestus.
-
Aeneas founded the city of Enez while trying to find new lands during his mythological travels.
-
After the death of Alexander the Great, in the period called the Diadochi, Alexander's general Lysimachus (360–281 BC) became king of Thrace and established his capital in Lysimachia.
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The Battle of Adrianople in 378 was an important turning point in the decline of the Roman Empire.
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Çimpe Castle was the first European territory held by the Ottoman Empire, dating back to 1352.
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Edirne was the second capital of the Ottoman Empire after Bursa.
-
The Gallipoli Campaign, one of the most important campaigns of the First World War, was fought on the Gallipoli peninsula.
During the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Muslim Muhacir of various ethnic groups from the former Ottoman territories in the Balkans, were forced to flee toward eastern Thrace through expulsions, violence and massacres, followed by further emigration caused by the 1923–24 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
Prior to that the distribution of ethnoreligious groups in the local sanjaks was as follows:
|
Ottoman Official Statistics, 1910 |
|
| 287,700 |
| 159,650 |
| 144,300 |
| 107,200 |
| 68,840 |
| 846,000 |
|
| 1,613,690 |
| Ecumenical Patriarchate Statistics, 1912 |
| 1,669,500 |
|
The Muslim
millet was recorded as Turkish, while the church members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate were recorded as
Rum millet.
In the past century, modern East Thrace was the main component of the territory of the Adrianople Vilayet, which excluded the Constantinople Vilayet, but included West Thrace and parts of the Rhodopes and Sakar Mountain. A publication from December 21, 1912, in the Belgian magazine Ons Volk Ontwaakt (‘Our Nation Awakes’) estimated 1,006,500 inhabitants in the vilayet:[Published on December 21, 1912 in the Belgian magazine Ons Volk Ontwaakt (Our Nation Awakes) – view the table of Vilajet Manastir: Skynet GodsdBalkan ]
21st century East Thrace constitutes what remains of Turkish Rumelia, which once stretched as far north as Hungary and as far west as Bosnia. Rumelia was lost piecemeal from 1699 onwards, until in 1912 the bulk of it was lost in the First Balkan War. Some small regains were made during the Second Balkan War. The current borders were set forth in the Treaty of Constantinople (1913) and the Bulgarian–Ottoman convention (1915), and were reaffirmed in the Treaty of Lausanne.
Demographics
Huge chunk of the population are descendants of the
Muhacir, such as
Balkan Turks, Bulgarian Turks in Turkey,
Amuca tribe, Albanians in Turkey, Bosniaks in Turkey,
Gajal, Pomaks in Turkey, Megleno-Romanians,
Vallahades, Crimean Tatars in Turkey, Circassians in Turkey, and Romani people in Turkey live there.
Attractions and festivals
Some tourist attractions are the
Edirne Museum, Complex of Sultan Bayezid II Health Museum, Treaty of Lausanne Monument and Museum, Kırklareli Museum, and the
Edirne Palace. There are several historical religious buildings, such as the Selimiye Mosque, Üç Şerefeli Mosque, Old Mosque, Muradiye Mosque, and the Grand Synagogue of Edirne. There are also historical bridges, such as the
Fatih Bridge, Meriç Bridge, and Uzunköprü Bridge.
Natural attractions include the Lake Gala National Park, İğneada Floodplain Forests National Park, Lake Saka Nature Reserve, and Dupnisa Cave.
Since 1360, the oil wrestling tournament Kırkpınar is held annually near Edirne; usually in late June. The Romani festival Kakava is held annually in Edirne and Kırklareli.
Politics
In Eastern Thrace the Republican People's Party and
Kemalism traditionally dominate.
A scandal in Turkey was triggered by the statement of CHP Büyükçekmece Council Member Eren Savaş in May 2023 that Eastern Thrace should be separated from Turkey.
== Gallery ==
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during the Gallipoli Campaign]]
See also
Notes
Further reading
-
The Yurta-Stroyno Archaeological Project. Studies on the Roman Rural Settlement in Thrace. P. Tušlová – B. Weissová – S. Bakardzhiev (eds.). Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts, 2022. (print), (online: pdf)
