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Revision as of 01:19, 25 June 2006 by 86.138.215.42 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Greeks in Turkey numbered fewer than 20,000 in 1995. Most of them are Eastern or Greek Orthodox Christians and live in İstanbul or on the two islands of Gökçeada (Imroz) and Bozca Ada (Tenedos), off the western entrance to the Dardanelles. They are the remnants of the estimated 200,000 Greeks who were permitted under the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne to remain in Turkey following the 1923 population exchange, which involved the forcible resettlement of approximately 1.5 million Greeks from Anatolia. Since 1924 the status of the Greek minority in Turkey has been ambiguous. Most Turks do not accept the country's Greek citizens as their equals. Beginning in the 1930s, the government instituted represive policies forcing many Greeks to emigrate. Examples are the Labour Battalions drafted among non-Muslims during WWII as well as the Head Tax levied again on non-Muslims during the same period. These resulted in financial ruination and death for many Greeks. The exodus was given greater impetus with the Istanbul Pogrom of 6-7 September 1955 when thousands of Greeks fleed for the lives, eventually reducing the Greek population to about 48,000 by 1965. Although the size of the Greek minority has continued to decline, the Greek citizens of Turkey generally constitute one of the country's wealthiest communities.
See also
- Istanbul Pogrom of 6-7 September 1955
- Greek-Turkish population exchange
- Treaty of Lausanne
- Patriarch of Constantinople
References
- This article contains some text originally adapted from the public domain Library of Congress Country Study for Turkey at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/trtoc.html.