East Thrace East Thrace East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( or simply "Trakya"; , "Anatoliki Thraki"; , "Iztochna Trakiya"), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the part of the modern Republic of Turkey that is geographically part of Southeast Europe. It accounts for 3% of Turkey's land area but comprises 14% of Turkey's total population. The rest of the country is located on the Anatolian peninsula, geographically in Western Asia. East Thrace is of historic importance as it is next to a major sea-based trade corridor. It is currently also of specific geostrategic importance because the sea corridor, that
General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox The General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox (in Turkish "Umum Anadolu Türk Ortodoksları Cemaatleri") was a pro-Turkish nationalist Orthodox Christian group set up in 1922 and mainly active in the Turkish-speaking, Orthodox Christian Karamanlides population of central Anatolia. Unlike most Greek Orthodox Christians, they identified themselves as Turkish rather than Greek and supported Kemal Ataturk. At the time, it had support from the Orthodox Bishop of Havza, as well as numerous other congregations. There were calls to establish a new Patriarchate for Turkish-speaking Christians with Turkish as the language of worship. In