Turkish majorities:
145-636: Turks of Western Thrace ( Turkish : Batı Trakya Türkleri ; Greek : Τούρκοι της Δυτικής Θράκης , romanized : Toúrkoi tis Dytikís Thrákis ) are ethnic Turks who live in Western Thrace , in the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece . According to the Greek census of 1991, there were approximately 50,000 of Turkish origin in Western Thrace, out of
290-656: A "second Cyprus" sometime in the future or of being ceded to Turkey on the basis of the ethnic origin of its Muslim inhabitants. Greek courts have also outlawed the use of the word 'Turkish' to describe the Turkish community. In 1988, the Greek Supreme Court affirmed a 1986 decision of the Court of Appeals of Thrace in which the Union of Turkish Associations of Western Thrace was ordered closed. The court held that
435-530: A Greek unit to enter the city of Serres . The Bulgarian unit that entered Thessaloniki turned out to be an 18,000-strong division instead of the battalion, which caused concern among the Greeks, who viewed it as a Bulgarian attempt to establish a condominium over the city. In the event, due to the urgently needed reinforcements in the Thracian front, Bulgarian Headquarters was soon forced to remove its troops from
580-488: A Turkish identity. The majority of Turks immigrated from Western Thrace . In the 1960s and 1970s, the Thracian tobacco industry was affected by a severe crisis and many tobacco growers lost their income. This resulted in many Turks leaving their homes and immigrating to Germany with estimates suggesting that today there are now between 12,000 and 25,000 residing in Germany. A minority of Western Thrace Turks can be found in
725-601: A branch of the larger Altaic family, including Japanese , Korean , Mongolian and Tungusic , with various other language families proposed for inclusion by linguists. Altaic theory has fallen out of favour since the 1960s, and a majority of linguists now consider Turkic languages to be unrelated to any other language family, though the Altaic hypothesis still has a small degree of support from individual linguists. The nineteenth-century Ural-Altaic theory, which grouped Turkish with Finnish , Hungarian and Altaic languages,
870-460: A compromise with Greece, despite several attempts made by Greek Prime Minister Venizelos , and Serbian insistence to keep all conquered territory paved the way to another conflict. On 1 May 1913, Greece and Serbia settled their differences and signed a military alliance directed against Bulgaria. On the night of 29 June 1913, the Bulgarian army made an ill-advised attempt to gain an advantage in
1015-505: A few kilometers away and also rushed to the battle. The Bulgarian attack was halted. The Greek army was also successful. It retreated according to plan for two days while Thessaloniki was cleared of the remaining Bulgarian regiment. Then, the Greek army counterattacked and defeated the Bulgarians at Kilkis (Kukush), after which the mostly Bulgarian town was plundered and burnt and part of its mostly Bulgarian population massacred by
1160-475: A form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as /b d dʒ ɡ/ , is devoiced to [p t tʃ k] at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of /k/ is /g/; in native words, it is /ğ/. This is analogous to languages such as German and Russian , but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling
1305-415: A negative suffix -me to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): Necla okula gitmedi ('Necla did not go to school'). In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic mi is added after the verb and stands alone, for example Necla okula gitti mi? ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then mi comes after the predicate but before
1450-715: A series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War , the four Balkan states of Greece , Serbia , Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under Ottoman control. In the Second Balkan War , Bulgaria fought against
1595-711: A superficial similarity to the Germanic runic alphabets . With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages ( c. 6th –11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia , covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia all the way to Europe and the Mediterranean . The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks , in particular, brought their language, Oghuz —the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during
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#17327798570081740-407: A verb in the form of the copula ol or y (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below: The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word değil . For example, the sentence above would become Necla öğretmen değil ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of
1885-713: Is a signature member. The Lausanne Treaty, along with the Greek Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union , enshrines the fundamental rights of the Turks and other ethnic groups of East Macedonia and Thrace and the obligations towards them. Parts of Western Thrace were overrun by the expanding Ottoman Empire in 1354 and remained in Ottoman control until 1913. During this time,
2030-531: Is based on the dialect of Istanbul . This Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp , Ömer Seyfettin and others. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and in the Turkish education system since the 1930s. Academic researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ağız or şive , leading to an ambiguity with
2175-435: Is considered even less plausible in light of Altaic's rejection. The theory was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features: agglutination , vowel harmony and lack of grammatical gender. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia . Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan , these date back to
2320-473: Is mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani . In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire , such as Iraq, Bulgaria, Cyprus , Greece (primarily in Western Thrace ), the Republic of North Macedonia , Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in
2465-635: Is one of the official languages of Cyprus . Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo , including Mamusha, , two in the Republic of North Macedonia and in Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq. Cyprus has requested the European Union to add Turkish as an official language, as it is one of the two official languages of the country. In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is
2610-720: Is scarcely present in the Evros prefecture , the closest to the international boundary with Turkey. According to estimates, Muslims as a whole, represented 36–38% of the Rhodopi Department population, 12–24% in the Xanthi Department and less than 5% in the Evros Department. According to Ethnologue , in 1976 the Turkish language was spoken by 128,000 people in Greece, the majority of whom are located in
2755-578: Is the 18th most spoken language in the world. To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish —the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire —spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script -based Ottoman Turkish alphabet
2900-525: Is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages , with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus . Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany , Austria , Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Greece , other parts of Europe , the South Caucasus , and some parts of Central Asia , Iraq , and Syria . Turkish
3045-642: Is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ad 'name' (dative ada ), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. at 'horse', dative ata ). Other exceptions are od 'fire' vs. ot 'herb', sac 'sheet metal', saç 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as kitap above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as hac 'hajj', şad 'happy', and yad 'strange' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms. Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in /k/ in dictionary form are nearly all /ğ/ in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly /k/. The vowels of
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#17327798570083190-431: Is usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), written ⟨ğ⟩ in Turkish orthography , represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens
3335-761: The Adriatic , while a second Army captured Kosovo and linked with the Montenegrin forces. Greece's main forces attacked from Thessaly into Macedonia through the Sarantaporo strait. On 7 November, in response to an Ottoman initiative, they entered into negotiations for the surrender of Thessaloniki . With the Greeks already there, and the Bulgarian 7th Rila Division moving swiftly from the north towards Thessaloniki, Hassan Tahsin Pasha considered his position to be hopeless. The Greeks offered more attractive terms than
3480-713: The Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya . The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish . The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in
3625-592: The First World War . By the early 20th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large elements of their ethnic populations remained under Ottoman rule. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League . The First Balkan War began on 8 October 1912, when the League member states attacked the Ottoman Empire, and ended eight months later with
3770-525: The Government of Greece does not refer to it by a specific ethnic background, nor does recognize any of these ethnicities, including the Turks, as separate ethnic minority in Western Thrace, instead referring to the whole Muslim minority on religious grounds, as the "Muslim Minority of Western Thrace" or "Greek Muslims". This is in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne to which Greece, along with Turkey ,
3915-570: The Laz language ). Kastamonu is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. Karamanli Turkish is spoken in Greece, where it is called Kαραμανλήδικα . It is the literary standard for the Karamanlides . At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian, although only syllable-finally. The phoneme that
4060-738: The Netherlands , the United States , the United Kingdom , Australia , Austria and Italy . Thus, overall there are an estimated 1 million Turks whose roots are from Western Thrace. It is estimated that there are between 25,000 and 40,000 Western Thrace Turks living in Western Europe . There are some members of the Greek Muslim community among the some 350,000 Greeks living in Germany who are Turks or who espouse
4205-619: The Novi Pazar area. The rest of the Allies, after giving a common ultimatum, declared war a week later. Bulgaria attacked towards Eastern Thrace, being stopped only at the outskirts of Constantinople at the Çatalca line and the isthmus of the Gallipoli peninsula , while secondary forces captured Western Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. Serbia attacked south towards Skopje and Monastir and then turned west to present-day Albania , reaching
4350-437: The Ottoman Empire period ( c. 1299 –1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish , which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe or "vulgar Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for
4495-627: The Second Turkic Khaganate (dated 682–744 CE). After the discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Old Turkic alphabet , which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to
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4640-560: The Seljuq Turks , who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans , the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian . Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry , was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during
4785-539: The Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of Old Anatolian Turkish , with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony . It is likely that elün meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in elün for "your hand" and kitabun for "your book",
4930-639: The Treaty of London on 30(17) May 1913. After pressure from the Great Powers towards Greece and Serbia, who had postponed signing in order to fortify their defensive positions, the signing of the Treaty of London took place on 30 May 1913. With this treaty, the war between the Balkan Allies and the Ottoman Empire came to an end. From now on, the Great Powers had the right of decision on the territorial adjustments that had to be made, which even led to
5075-590: The Turkish Language Association ( Türk Dil Kurumu or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism : indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with
5220-464: The Turkish language . According to some sources, newspapers, magazines and books published in Turkey are not allowed entry into Western Thrace, and Turkish television and radio stations are sometimes jammed. According to other sources, the minority has full and independent access to its own newspapers radio, television, and other written media coming from Turkey, regardless of their content. According to
5365-582: The Vallahades and other Greek Muslims of Greek Macedonia . This policy was introduced immediately after the unilateral declaration of independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983 on lands that once had an 82% Greek majority before becoming refugees during the Turkish invasion in 1974. The Greek government declared that it was a measure to avert the possibility of the Greek region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace becoming
5510-474: The Vallahades . In contrast, the Western Thrace Turks are completely distinct from those referred to as Greek Muslims and were exempt from the terms of the population exchange. A number of estimates and censuses during the 1912–1920 period gave the following results about the ethnic distribution of the area that would become known as Western Thrace: The Pomak population depending on the source
5655-586: The 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate , published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk ( ديوان لغات الترك ). Following the adoption of Islam around the year 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and
5800-411: The 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used the formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After
5945-588: The 1990s Yugoslav Wars . The background to the wars lies in the incomplete emergence of nation-states on the European territory of the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the 19th century. Serbia had gained substantial territory during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) , while Greece acquired Thessaly in 1881 (although it lost a small area back to the Ottoman Empire in 1897) and Bulgaria (an autonomous principality since 1878) incorporated
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6090-660: The 1993 elections. Since then the Turkish minority in the Hellenic Parliament has been represented by Turkish deputies belonging to nationwide political parties, and the Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace , which succeeded the Independent Muslim List in 1991, practically disappeared from the electoral scene. Xanthi : Chousein Zeimpek (Syriza) [7] There are presently two Turkish MPs from
6235-588: The 3rd biggest party after top 2 national parties New Democracy and Syriza . According to the former Article 19 of the 1955 Citizenship Law (No. 3370), a person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without the intention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek nationality. According to the Greek government, between 1955 and 1998, approximately 60,000 Greek Muslim individuals, predominantly Turkish, were deprived of their citizenship under Article 19. Of these 60,000, approximately 7,182 lost their citizenship between 1981 and 1997. The application of this law to
6380-733: The 5 in Rhodope. For the KKE (which presently has no MP in Xanthi or Rhodope), Faik Faik in Rhodope and Chasan Efendi in Xanthi. For SYRIZA (which presently has no MP in Xanthi or Rhodope), Chasan Malkots and Chousein Zeimpek are candidates in Xanthi, and in Rhodope Dr. Moustafa Moustafa (former MP) and Tzelalentin Giourtsou. In 2014 and 2019 European Parliament election in Greece , Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace (DEB) has emerged as
6525-489: The Bulgarian 2nd and 1st Armies, newly arrived from the Serbian front, that had already taken defensive positions there following the Bulgarian victory at Kalimanci . By 30 July, the Greek army was outnumbered by the counter-attacking Bulgarian army, which attempted to encircle the Greeks in a Cannae -type battle, by applying pressure on their flanks. The Greek army was exhausted and faced logistical difficulties. The battle
6670-518: The Bulgarian civilian population. The Greek army then divided its forces and advanced in two directions. Part proceeded east and occupied Western Thrace . The rest of the Greek army advanced up to the Struma River valley, defeating the Bulgarian army in the battles of Doiran and Mt. Beles, and continued its advance to the north towards Sofia . In the Kresna straits , the Greeks were ambushed by
6815-427: The Bulgarian counterpart, "As long as we are not allied with you, our influence over the Croats and Slovens will be insignificant". On the other side, Bulgaria wanted the autonomy of Macedonia region under the influence of the two countries. The then Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs General Stefan Paprikov stated in 1909 that, "It will be clear that if not today then tomorrow, the most important issue will again be
6960-427: The Bulgarian government and without an official declaration of war. During the night of 30(17) June 1913, they attacked the Serbian army at Bregalnica river and then the Greek army in Nigrita . The Serbian army resisted the sudden night attack, while most of the soldiers did not even know who they were fighting with, as Bulgarian camps were located next to Serbs and were considered allies. Montenegro's forces were just
7105-511: The Bulgarians did. On 8 November, Tahsin Pasha agreed to terms and 26,000 Ottoman troops passed over into Greek captivity. Before the Greeks entered the city, a German warship whisked the former sultan Abdul Hamid II out of Thessaloniki to continue his exile, across the Bosporus from Constantinople. With their army in Thessaloniki, the Greeks took new positions to the east and northeast, including Nigrita . On 12 November (on 26 October 1912, O.S. ) Greece expanded its occupied area and teamed up with
7250-474: The Empire. It forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to re-adopt the defunct Ottoman constitution of 1876 and parliament . Hopes were raised among the Balkan ethnicities of reforms and autonomy. Elections were held to form a representative, multi-ethnic, Ottoman parliament. However, following the Sultan's failed counter-coup of 1909 , the liberal element of the Young Turks was sidelined and the nationalist element became dominant. In October 1908, Austria-Hungary seized
7395-425: The First Balkan War, Serbia and Greece, while Montenegro and the Ottoman Empire intervened later against Bulgaria, with Romania attacking Bulgaria from the north in violation of a peace treaty. When the Greek army had entered Thessaloniki in the First Balkan War ahead of the Bulgarian 7th division by only a day, they were asked to allow a Bulgarian battalion to enter the city. Greece accepted in exchange for allowing
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#17327798570087540-423: The French loanword parti ). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example betik (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean " script " in computer science . Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are: Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. The Turkish language
7685-434: The Great Powers prevented the latter action from taking practical effect. Serbia was frustrated in the north by Austria-Hungary's incorporation of Bosnia. In March 1909, Serbia was forced to accept the annexation and restrain anti-Habsburg agitation by Serbian nationalists. Instead, the Serbian government (PM: Nikola Pašić ) looked to formerly Serb territories in the south, notably "Old Serbia" (the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and
7830-404: The Greek Citizenship Code, which allowed of its revocation for non-ethnic Greeks who left the country. After a lengthy legal battle, she finally won her case with a second appeal before the European Court of Human Rights and re-secured her Greek citizenship in 2001. For PASOK, Tsetin Mantatzi and Seval Osmanoglou are among the 5 candidates in Xanthi, Rintvan Kotzamoumin and Achmet Chatziosman among
7975-493: The Greek army. Following the capture of Kilkis, the Greek army's pace was not quick enough to prevent the retaliatory destruction of Nigrita , Serres , and Doxato and massacres of non-combatant Greek inhabitants at Sidirokastro and Doxato by the Bulgarian army. The Greek committed further war crimes against the Bulgarian population during it advance - in total about 160 Bulgarian villages were destroyed and most of their population expelled. with multiple additional massacres of
8120-416: The Greek minority in Turkey (like forced labor battalions, the Istanbul pogrom and Varlik Vergisi ), a minority that is nearly eliminated today (from 70,000 in 1923 to 3,000 in 2000). In 1990 a new electoral law was enacted in Greece, which set a threshold of at least 3% of the nationwide vote for a party to be represented in the parliament. Consequently, independent Turkish MPs were barred from election at
8265-410: The Greek presence in the newly acquired provinces and the homogenization of the population. The Greek government especially resettled the refugees in Komotini, Xanthi and Sapes regions where the majority of Muslim Turks lived. The Turkish community has a strong presence in the Komotini ( Turkish : Gümülcine ) and Xanthi ( Turkish : İskeçe ) departments of East Macedonia and Thrace , while it
8410-573: The Greeks had a military advantage on the eve of the war because their armies confronted comparatively weak Ottoman forces in the First Balkan War and suffered relatively light casualties, while the Bulgarians were involved in heavy fighting in Thrace. The Serbs and Greeks had time to fortify their positions in Macedonia. The Bulgarians also held some advantages, controlling internal communication and supply lines. On 29(16) June 1913, General Savov, under direct orders of Tsar Ferdinand I , issued attack orders against both Greece and Serbia without consulting
8555-412: The Greeks received international recognition on their claim of Thessaloniki. Similarly, in modern North Macedonia , the tension between Serbia and Bulgaria due to the latter's aspirations over Vardar Macedonia generated many incidents between their respective armies, prompting Serbia to keep its army mobilized. Serbia and Greece proposed that each of the three countries reduce its army by a quarter, as
8700-409: The Latin alphabet for speakers of eastern dialects. Some immigrants to Turkey from Rumelia speak Rumelian Turkish , which includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie , Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theorized Balkan sprachbund . Kıbrıs Türkçesi is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots . Edirne is the dialect of Edirne . Ege is spoken in
8845-567: The Latin script, encoded for many of the dialectal variations between Turkish dialects, the modern Latin script fails to do this. Examples of this are the presence of the nasal velar sound [ŋ] in certain eastern dialects of Turkish which was represented by the Ottoman letter /ڭ/ but that was merged into /n/ in the Latin script. Additionally are letters such as /خ/, /ق/, /غ/ which make the sounds [ɣ], [q], and [x], respectively in certain eastern dialects but that are merged into [g], [k], and [h] in western dialects and are therefore defectively represented in
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#17327798570088990-497: The Macedonian Question. And this question, whatever happens, cannot be decided without more or less direct participation of the Balkan States". Last but not least, they noted down the divisions that should be made of the Ottoman territories after a victorious outcome of the war. Bulgaria would gain all the territories eastern of Rodopi Mountains and River Strimona, while Serbia would annex the territories northern and western of Mount Skardu. The alliance pact between Greece and Bulgaria
9135-422: The Military League dissolved itself. Bulgaria, which had secured Ottoman recognition of her independence in April 1909 and enjoyed the friendship of Russia, also looked to annex districts of Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia. In August 1910, Montenegro followed Bulgaria's precedent by becoming a kingdom. Following the Italian victory in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, the severity of the Ottomanizing policy of
9280-614: The Netherlands, especially in the Randstad region; after Germany, the Netherlands is the most popular destination for Turkish immigrants. There are an estimated 600–700 Western Thrace Turks living in London although this does not include those who are British-born. The total number living outside London is unknown. However even their small number, Western Thrace Turks in the UK have their own community ( Association of Western Thrace Turks UK ) Turkish language Turkish ( Türkçe [ˈtyɾctʃe] , Türk dili ; also known as Türkiye Türkçesi 'Turkish of Turkey' )
9425-429: The Ottoman Empire was fruitless, because of the doubts the Bulgarians held on the strength of the Greek Army. Later that year, in December 1911, Bulgaria and Serbia agreed to start negotiations in forming an alliance under the tight inspection of Russia. The treaty between Serbia and Bulgaria was signed on 29 of February/13 of March 1912. Serbia sought expansion to " Old Serbia " and as Milan Milovanovich noted in 1909 to
9570-418: The Ottoman Empire was not possible. France wished to strengthen its position in the region, especially in the Levant (today's Lebanon, Syria, and Israel). Habsburg -ruled Austria-Hungary wished for a continuation of the existence of the Ottoman Empire, since both were troubled multinational entities and thus the collapse of the one might weaken the other. The Habsburgs also saw a strong Ottoman presence in
9715-401: The Ottoman Empire, after negotiations failed regarding the border status. On 30 of September/13 of October, the ambassadors of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece delivered the common ultimatum to the Ottoman government, which was immediately rejected. The Empire withdrew its ambassadors from Sofia, Belgrade, and Athens, while the Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek diplomats left the Ottoman capital delivering
9860-404: The Ottoman Empire, after the flight of the Greek refugees from Asia Minor , as a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) , the Greek genocide and the subsequent population exchange between Greece and Turkey . Of all Greek Asia Minor refugees (around 1.2 million), 8% of them were resettled in Western Thrace. The Greek government's reason to settle the refugees in this region was to strengthen
10005-400: The Ottoman army (the Struggle for Macedonia ). After the Young Turk revolution of July 1908, the situation changed drastically. The 1908 Young Turk Revolution saw the reinstatement of constitutional monarchy in the Ottoman Empire and the start of the Second Constitutional Era . When the revolt broke out, it was supported by intellectuals, the army, and almost all the ethnic minorities of
10150-433: The Ottomans, alarmed Greece, which decided to also keep its army mobilized. A month after the Second Balkan War started, the Bulgarian community of Thessaloniki no longer existed, as hundreds of long-time Bulgarian locals were arrested. Thirteen hundred Bulgarian soldiers and about five hundred komitadjis were also arrested and transferred to Greek prisons. In November 1913, the Bulgarians were forced to admit their defeat, as
10295-953: The SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes. Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb: Ahmet Ahmet yumurta-yı Balkan Wars First Balkan War: Second Balkan War: [REDACTED] 437,000+ [REDACTED] 450,000+ [REDACTED] 230,000 [REDACTED] 125,000 [REDACTED] 44,500 Total: 850,000 men [REDACTED] 348,000 [REDACTED] 330,000 [REDACTED] 255,000 [REDACTED] 148,000 [REDACTED] 12,800 [REDACTED] 632,000–1,500,000 Ottoman Muslim civilian deaths [REDACTED] 400,000–813,000 Ottoman Muslim refugees Serbian and Montenegrin front Greek front The Balkan Wars were
10440-587: The Serbian army to the northwest, while its main forces turned east towards Kavala , reaching the Bulgarians. Another Greek army attacked into Epirus towards Ioannina . On the naval front, the Ottoman fleet twice exited the Dardanelles and was twice defeated by the Greek Navy , in the battles of Elli and Lemnos . Greek dominance on the Aegean Sea made it impossible for the Ottomans to transfer
10585-845: The Serbs of their much-coveted Adriatic port, they demanded not only the entire Contested Zone , but also all of the Uncontested one they had occupied. Bulgarian efforts to appeal to the Russian Emperor, quoting, for example, the clauses of the Treaty, the material difference between Serbian (29,698) and Bulgarian casualties (87,926) or the surrender of the Bulgarian City of Silistra to Romania as compensation for its continued neutrality proved futile. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov instead kept encouraging Bulgaria to accede to an ever-increasing list of Serbian demands. In
10730-469: The TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries. In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual Ottoman-Turkish /Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform. Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before
10875-438: The Treaty itself. This event led to the formation of two ‘de facto’ military occupation zones on Macedonian territory, as Greece and Serbia tried to create a common border. In turn, Bulgarians were furious about Serbia's refusal to honour its commitments under the 1912 Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty, which had split the geographic region of Macedonia into two zones, one contested between Serbia and Bulgaria, and another one, recognised by
11020-508: The Treaty of Lausanne, the Muslim minority is entitled to freedom of religion and to the right to control charitable and religious institutions. However, the Turkish community believes that these international law guarantees have been violated by the Greek government by denying permission to repair or rebuild old mosques or to build new mosques, by denying the right to choose the muftis (this chief religious officers), and by efforts to control
11165-430: The Turkish communities charitable foundations. According to another source, more than five new mosques are being built in the prefecture of Xanthi alone and 19 new mosques are being built in the prefecture of Rhodope alone, while in the same prefecture the number of mosques exceeds 160. According to a report by a local organization there have been frequent (six in 2010 and three in the first months of 2011) attacks against
11310-532: The Turkish community grew to outnumber the Greek community four to one and owned close to 84% of the land. By August 31, 1913, the Turks of Western Thrace had formed the first 'Turkish republic', the Provisional Government of Western Thrace . However, it was taken over by the Kingdom of Bulgaria on October 25, 1913, which had been victorious in the First Balkan War . France occupied the area at
11455-539: The Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨ı⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ö⟩ , ⟨u⟩ , ⟨ü⟩ . The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back , rounded and unrounded and vowel height . Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high]. The only diphthongs in
11600-558: The Turks of Western Thrace was a retaliatory measure in response to the devastating state-sponsored pogrom which targeted the Greeks of Istanbul in September 1955. The pogrom precipitated an exodus of ethnic Greeks from Turkey. Article 19 was repealed in 1998, though not retroactively. Since the Treaty of Lausanne used the criterion of religion to refer to the ethnic communities, the Greek Government has usually insisted that
11745-592: The United States, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of the diaspora speak the language with native fluency. In 2005, 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish, about 67 million at the time, with Kurdish languages making up most of
11890-704: The Western HQ in Salonika, and the Vardar HQ in Skopje , against the Bulgarians, the Greeks and the Serbians respectively. Most of their available forces were allocated to these fronts. Smaller independent units were allocated elsewhere, mostly around heavily fortified cities. Montenegro was the first to declare war on 8 October (25 September O.S.). Its main thrust was towards Shkodra , with secondary operations in
12035-813: The Western Thrace portion of East Macedonia and Thrace , both of whom are affiliated to the Panhellenic Socialist Movement: Tsetin Mantatzi (Xanthi) and Achmet Chatziosman (Rhodope), former president (1999–2007) of the Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace created by former (1989) MP Sadik Achmet in 1991. At least 14 candidates from the Turkish minority have been nominated, mainly in Rhodope and Xanthi. For New Democracy, former MP (2004–2007) Ilchan Achmet and Achmet Achmet are candidates in Rhodope, and in Xanthi Aisel Zeimpek and Achmet Mpountour. Zeimpek had lost her Greek citizenship under Article 19 of
12180-553: The Western Thrace portion of the province of East Macedonia and Thrace . However, the Greek language is also widely used. Article 37 through 45 of the Lausanne Treaty set forth the obligations of the Greek and Turkish governments to protect the Turkish and Greek minorities in their territories. Each country agreed to provide the following: The Lausanne Treaty defined the rights of the Muslim communities in Western Thrace, on
12325-732: The Western-Thracian front, Bulgarian forces, with the help of the Serbian Army, managed to conquer Adrianople , while Greek forces managed to take Ioannina after defeating the Ottomans in the Battle of Bizani . In the joint Serbian-Montenegrin theater of operation, the Montenegrin army besieged and captured the Shkodra , ending the Ottoman presence in Europe west of the Çatalca line after nearly 500 years. The war ended officially with
12470-548: The Young Turkish regime and a series of three revolts in Ottoman held Albania, the Young Turks fell from power after a coup. The Christian Balkan countries were forced to take action and saw this as an opportunity to promote their national agenda by expanding in the territories of the falling empire and liberating their enslaved co-patriots. In order to achieve that, a wide net of treaties was constructed and an alliance
12615-564: The addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of the Turkic family. Other members include Azerbaijani , spoken in Azerbaijan and north-west Iran , Gagauz of Gagauzia , Qashqai of south Iran and the Turkmen of Turkmenistan . Historically the Turkic family was seen as
12760-493: The adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. The TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982 , following the military coup d'état of 1980 . Modern standard Turkish
12905-406: The aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by
13050-538: The all-important opening round of the war. After the defeat of the Ottoman fleet, the Greek Navy was also free to occupy the islands of the Aegean. General Nikola Ivanov identified the activity of the Greek Navy as the chief factor in the general success of the allies. In January, after a successful coup by young army officers, the Ottoman Empire decided to continue the war. After a failed Ottoman counter-attack in
13195-509: The approximately 98,000 strong Muslim minority of Greece . Other sources estimate the size of the Muslim community between 90,000 and 120,000. Their community of Western Thrace is not to be confused with Pomaks nor with Muslim Roma people of the same region, counting 35% and 15% of the Muslim minority respectively. Due to the multiethnic character of the Muslim minority of Greece , which includes Greek Muslims , Turks, Pomaks and Roma Muslims,
13340-551: The area as a counterweight to the Serbian nationalistic call to their own Serb subjects in Bosnia , Vojvodina and other parts of the empire. Italy 's primary aim at the time seems to have been the denial of access to the Adriatic Sea to another major sea power. The German Empire , in turn, under the " Drang nach Osten " policy, aspired to turn the Ottoman Empire into its own de facto colony, and thus supported its integrity. In
13485-484: The areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with Azerbaijani , the language of Azerbaijan. The Central Anatolia Region speaks Orta Anadolu . Karadeniz , spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax ; it is also known as Laz dialect (not to be confused with
13630-405: The basis of identification of a minority is religious and not ethnic (or national). Successive Greek Government policies refused to acknowledge the existence of an ethnic Turkish community in Northern Greece , and insisted on referring to Western Thrace Turks as Greek Muslims , suggesting that they were not of ethnic Turkish origin but were the descendants of Ottoman-era Greek converts to Islam like
13775-410: The basis of religion, not ethnicity, as well as maintained a balance between the minority communities of both countries (Turks in Greece and Greeks in Turkey ) on reciprocal obligations toward each of those minorities. The Treaty contained specific obligations for their cultural and religious rights. These have been largely respected, in contrast to measures taken by successive Turkish governments against
13920-644: The city (while the Greeks agreed by mutual treaty to remove their units based in Serres ) and transport them to Dedeağaç (modern Alexandroupolis ), but it left behind a battalion that started fortifying its positions. Greece had also allowed the Bulgarians to control the stretch of the Thessaloniki-Constantinople railroad that lay in Greek-occupied territory since Bulgaria controlled the largest part of this railroad towards Thrace. After
14065-491: The common cause to fight the Ottoman Empire. In April 1912 Montenegro and Bulgaria reached an agreement including financial aid to Montenegro in case of war with the Ottoman Empire. A gentlemen's agreement with Greece was reached soon after, as mentioned before. By the end of September a political and military alliance between Montenegro and Serbia was achieved. By the end of September 1912, Bulgaria had formal-written alliances with Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro. A formal alliance
14210-756: The conflict, had intact armies to strike with and invaded Bulgaria from the north in violation of a peace treaty between the two states. The Ottoman Empire also attacked Bulgaria and advanced in Thrace , regaining Adrianople . In the resulting Treaty of Bucharest , Bulgaria managed to regain most of the territories it had gained in the First Balkan War. However, it was forced to cede the ex-Ottoman south part of Dobruja province to Romania. The Balkan Wars were marked by ethnic cleansing , with all parties being responsible for grave atrocities against civilians, and inspired later atrocities including war crimes during
14355-513: The continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka , "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval ( fırka has been replaced by
14500-530: The country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the distinctive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov, a leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over
14645-482: The creation of an independent Albania. Every Aegean island belonging to the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of Imbros and Tenedos , was handed over to the Greeks, including the island of Crete . Furthermore, all European territory of the Ottoman Empire west of the Enos-Midiya ( Enez - Kıyıköy ) line, was ceded to the Balkan League , but the division of the territory among the League was not to be decided by
14790-417: The danger of encirclement, Constantine realized that his army could no longer continue hostilities. Thus, he agreed to Eleftherios Venizelos ' proposal and accepted the Bulgarian request for an armistice as had been communicated through Romania. Romania had raised an army and declared war on Bulgaria on 10 July (27 June) as it had from 28 (15) June officially warned Bulgaria that it would not remain neutral in
14935-679: The end of the First World War , following the defeat of Bulgaria, and it passed into Greek hands under the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920. Under a protocol of the same year, the Turks of Western Thrace were exempted from the 1922–1923 exchange of populations agreement between Greece and Turkey and were granted rights within the framework of the Lausanne Treaty . However, since 1923, between 300,000 and 400,000 Turks have left Western Thrace most of which have immigrated to Turkey . The actual Ottoman-era Greek Muslims of Macedonia had been included among those 'Turks' expatriated to Turkey in 1924. including
15080-531: The end of the operations in Thrace, and confirming Greek concerns, Bulgaria was not satisfied with the territory it controlled in Macedonia and immediately asked Greece to relinquish its control over Thessaloniki and the land north of Pieria , effectively handing over all of Greek Macedonia. These demands, with the Bulgarian refusal to demobilize its army after the Treaty of London had ended the common war against
15225-762: The end, Bulgaria's overreliance on the Russian Empire , a power which had anathemised the Unification of Bulgaria , invited the Ottoman Sultan to reconquer Eastern Rumelia and organised a coup against the Bulgarian Prince only three decades prior and which had watched Ferdinand 's charge towards Istanbul with ill-disguised alarm due to its own long-standing aspirations towards the Turkish Straits, Bulgaria's unwillingness to reach
15370-466: The first party in Xanthi and Rhodope regional units, under Moustafa Ali Tsavous, and most currently under Tsidem Asafoglou , respectively. In 2019 elections, DEB received 38% of the votes in Xanthi regional unit and 25.24% of the votes in Rhodope regional unit. DEB also received 1.30% of the votes in Evros regional unit. While in the overall region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace , the party came in as
15515-444: The first step towards a peaceful solution, but Bulgaria rejected it. Seeing the omens, Greece and Serbia started a series of negotiations and signed a treaty on 1 June(19 May) 1913. With this treaty, a mutual border was agreed between the two countries, together with an agreement for mutual military and diplomatic support in case of a Bulgarian or/and Austro-Hungarian attack. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia , being well informed, tried to stop
15660-487: The formerly distinct province of Eastern Rumelia (1885). All three countries, as well as Montenegro , sought additional territories within the large Ottoman-ruled region known as Rumelia , comprising Eastern Rumelia, Albania , Macedonia, and Thrace . The First Balkan War had some main causes, which included: Throughout the 19th century, the Great Powers shared different aims over the " Eastern Question " and
15805-478: The general distribution of population in Western Thrace was as follows: During Ottoman rule before 1912, Greeks constituted a minority in the region of Western Thrace . After the Balkan Wars and World War I the demography of the region was changed. While groups such as the Turks and Bulgarians decreased, the Greek population increased by the resettlement of ten thousands of Greek refugees from other areas of
15950-476: The integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Russia wanted access to the "warm waters" of the Mediterranean from the Black Sea; so, it pursued a pan-Slavic foreign policy and therefore supported Bulgaria and Serbia. Britain wished to deny Russia access to the "warm waters" and supported the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, although it also supported a limited expansion of Greece as a backup plan in case integrity of
16095-473: The lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — elun and kitabun . With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable). Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or
16240-466: The language are found in loanwords and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel. The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort. This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules: The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to
16385-429: The language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive the speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. The past few decades have seen
16530-430: The late 19th and early 20th century, Bulgaria and Greece contended for Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace. Ethnic Greeks sought the forced "Hellenization" of ethnic Bulgars, who sought "Bulgarization" of Greeks ( Rise of nationalism ). Both nations sent armed irregulars into Ottoman territory to protect and assist their ethnic kindred. From 1904, there was low-intensity warfare in Macedonia between the Greek and Bulgarian bands and
16675-525: The linguistic concept of accent , which is also covered with these words. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out projects investigating Turkish dialects. As of 2002 work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect- atlas of the Turkish language. Although the Ottoman alphabet, being slightly more phonetically ambiguous than
16820-402: The modern Turkish language. While visiting the region between Adıyaman and Adana , Evliya Çelebi recorded the "Turkman language" and compared it with his own Turkish: Reforms Kemalism After the foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform , the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , with
16965-410: The national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian. In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel Foreign Languages TV was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and
17110-488: The negotiations by pushing out Serbian and Greek forces out of several disputed territories without a battle plan or declaration of war, naively thinking that this would be regarded as a mere altercation. Instead, the action gave Serbia and Greece casus belli and kicked off the Second Balkan War . Though the Balkan allies had fought together against the common enemy, that was not enough to overcome their mutual rivalries. In
17255-400: The opportunity of the Ottoman political upheaval to annex the de jure Ottoman province of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which it had occupied since 1878 (see Bosnian Crisis ). Bulgaria declared independence as it had done in 1878, but this time the independence was internationally recognized. The Greeks of the autonomous Cretan State proclaimed unification with Greece, though the opposition of
17400-501: The original document for the Balkans league, Serbia promised Bulgaria most of Macedonia. But before the first war had come to an end, Serbia (in violation of the previous agreement) and Greece revealed their plan to keep possession of the territories that their forces had occupied. This act prompted the tsar of Bulgaria to invade his allies. The Second Balkan War broke out on 29 (16) June 1913, when Bulgaria attacked its erstwhile allies in
17545-519: The other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the July crisis of 1914 and thus served as a prelude to
17690-489: The personal ending, so for example Necla, siz öğretmen misiniz ? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?'). Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb , as in Korean and Latin , but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often
17835-435: The phenomenon of labial assimilation: if the lips are rounded (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are unrounded for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently. Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: Practically,
17980-658: The planned troops from the Middle East to the Thracian (against the Bulgarian) and to the Macedonian (against the Greeks and Serbians) fronts. According to E.J. Erickson the Greek Navy also played a crucial, albeit indirect role, in the Thracian campaign by neutralizing no less than three Thracian Corps (see First Balkan War , the Bulgarian theater of operations), a significant portion of the Ottoman Army there, in
18125-638: The preceding vowel. In native Turkic words, the sounds [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] are mainly in complementary distribution with [k] , [ɡ] , and [ɫ] ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below. However, there are minimal pairs that distinguish between these sounds, such as kar [kɑɾ] "snow" vs kâr [cɑɾ] "profit". Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing ,
18270-440: The principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: Türkiye' dir ("it is Turkey"), kapı dır ("it is the door"), but gün dür ("it is the day"), palto dur ("it is the coat"). These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony: The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features: The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in
18415-616: The private and public property of Turks in Western Thrace. Among the recent incidents are three in 2010 (in Kahveci, Kırmahalle, Popos and Ifestos at Komotini) where attackers desecrated Turkish cemeteries and broke tombstones. There were also attacks against mosques, Turkish associations and Turkish consulates, attackers used methods like throwing stones, molotov bombs and damaging buildings. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Turks have left Western Thrace since 1923; most of them immigrated to Turkey. Western Thrace Turks have also immigrated to Germany ,
18560-540: The province of Kosovo ). On 15 August 1909, the Military League , a group of Greek officers, launched a coup. The Military League sought the creation of a new political system and thus summoned the Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos to Athens as its political advisor. Venizelos persuaded King George I to revise the constitution and asked the League to disband in favor of a National Assembly. In March 1910,
18705-401: The remainder. Azerbaijani language , official in Azerbaijan, is mutually intelligible with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with a multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in
18850-421: The signing of the Treaty of London on 30 May 1913. The Second Balkan War began on 16 June 1913, when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its loss of Macedonia , attacked its former Balkan League allies. The combined forces of Serbian and Greek armies, with their superior numbers repelled the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked Bulgaria by invading it from the west and the south. Romania , having taken no part in
18995-515: The two countries as Bulgarian by rights. Before the war, Serbia had relinquished its claim to the territory east of the Ohrid - Kriva Palanka line in favour of Bulgaria (the ‘Uncontested Zone’ ), while the future of some 11,000 square km of territory, forming the northwestern corner of geographic region of Macedonia (the ‘Contested Zone’ ), was to be decided by the Russian Emperor , who
19140-432: The twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The following examples, based on the copula -dir ("[it] is"), illustrate
19285-499: The upcoming conflict on 8 June, by sending an identical personal message to the Kings of Bulgaria and Serbia, offering to act as arbitrator according to the provisions of the 1912 Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. But Bulgaria, by making the acceptance of Russian arbitration conditional, in effect denied any discussion, causing Russia to repudiate its alliance with Bulgaria (see Russo-Bulgarian military convention signed 31 May 1902). The Serbs and
19430-443: The use of the word 'Turkish' referred to citizens of Turkey , and could not be used to describe citizens of Greece ; the use of the word 'Turkish' to describe Greek Muslims was held to endanger public order. This led to about 10,000 people demonstrating against the decision in Western Thrace. According to members of the Turkish minority, it was the first time ethnic Turks had taken to the streets. More than 10 newspapers are issued in
19575-422: The war declaration on 4/17 of October 1912. The three Slavic allies (Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro) had laid out extensive plans to coordinate their war efforts, in continuation of their secret prewar settlements and under close Russian supervision (Greece was not included). Serbia and Montenegro would attack in the theater of Sanjak, Bulgaria, and Serbia in Macedonia and Thrace. The Ottoman Empire's situation
19720-480: Was Senior Arbitrary and Guarantor of the alliance. Assured by the clauses of the Treaty that it would receive what it considered its fair share of Macedonia , Bulgaria sent almost all of its troops to the Thracian front, which was expected to, and eventually did indeed, decide the outcome of the war. At the same time, Serbia pushed into Kosovo and northern Macedonia. As the establishment of an independent Albanian state, brokered by Italy and Austria-Hungary, deprived
19865-519: Was also signed between Serbia and Montenegro, while Greco-Montenegrin and Greco-Serbian agreements were basically oral "gentlemen's agreements". All these completed the formation of the Balkan League. At that time, the Balkan states had been able to maintain armies that were both numerous, in relation to each country's population, and eager to act, being inspired by the idea that they would free enslaved parts of their homeland. The Bulgarian Army
20010-464: Was continued for 11 days, between 29 July and 9 August over 20 km of a maze of forests and mountains with no conclusion. The Greek king, seeing that the units he fought were from the Serbian front, tried to convince the Serbs to renew their attack, as the front ahead of them was now thinner, but the Serbs declined. By then, news came of the Romanian advance toward Sofia and its imminent fall. Facing
20155-660: Was difficult. Its population of about 26 million people provided a massive pool of manpower, but three-quarters of the population lived in the Asian part of the Empire. Reinforcements had to come from Asia mainly by sea, which depended on the result of battles between the Turkish and Greek navies in the Aegean. With the outbreak of the war, the Ottoman Empire activated three Army HQs: the Thracian HQ in Constantinople ,
20300-445: Was finally signed on 16/29 of May 1912, without stipulating any specific division of Ottoman territories. In summer 1912, Greece proceeded on making "gentlemen's agreements" with Serbia and Montenegro. Despite the fact that a draft of the alliance pact with Serbia was submitted on 22 of October, a formal pact was never signed due to the outbreak of the war. As a result, Greece did not have any territorial or other commitments, other than
20445-650: Was formed. The negotiation among the Balkan states' governments started in the latter part of 1911 and was all conducted in secret. The treaties and military conventions were published in French translations after the Balkan Wars on 24–26 of November in Le Matin, Paris, France In April 1911, Greek PM Eleutherios Venizelos ’ attempt to reach an agreement with the Bulgarian PM and form a defensive alliance against
20590-468: Was needed in the Balkan League for its navy and its capability to dominate the Aegean Sea , cutting off the Ottoman Armies from reinforcements. On 13 ( O.S. )/26 of September 1912, the Ottoman mobilization in Thrace forced Serbia and Bulgaria to act and order their own mobilization. On 17/30 of September Greece also ordered mobilization. On 25 of September/8 of October, Montenegro declared war on
20735-517: Was replaced with the Latin script -based Turkish alphabet . Some distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has a strong T–V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance , age, courtesy or familiarity toward
20880-403: Was sometimes counted together with the Turks according to the Ottoman system of classifying people depending on religion, while in other occasions was specified separately. On the other hand, according to the Bulgarian view, they are considered "Bulgarian Muslims" and an integral part of the Bulgarian nation. According to the Turkish thesis, as it was presented at Lausanne Peace Conference (1920),
21025-659: Was the leading army of the coalition. It was a well-trained and fully equipped army, capable of facing the Imperial Army. It was suggested that the bulk of the Bulgarian Army would be in the Thracian front, as it was expected that the front near the Ottoman Capital would be the most crucial one. The Serbian Army would act on the Macedonian front, as the Greek Army were thought to be powerless, but Greece
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