Turks of the Dodecanese in 1974 many Muslim Turks left the islands and settled in Turkey. Many of them were deprived of their Greek citizenship and property. Some of those who stayed abandoned the Turkish language and their religion. The Turks in Kos are partly organized around the Muslim Association of Kos Kos Müslüman which gives the figure 2,000 for the population they bring together and represent for the Greek island. Those in Rhodes are organized around the Moslem Association of Rhodes Rodos Müslümanı, which gives the figure 3,500 for the population they bring together and represent for the island. The more general term
Dodecanese civilian governor, Count , as "Viceroy of the Dodecanese". As the name was associated with Greek irredentism, from 1924 Mussolini's Fascist regime tried to abolish its use by referring to them as the "Italian Islands of the Aegean", but this name never acquired any wider currency outside Italian administrative usage. The islands joined Greece in 1947 following as the "Governorate-General of the Dodecanese" (Γενική Διοίκησις Δωδεκανήσου), since 1955 the "Dodecanese Prefecture" (Νομός Δωδεκανήσου). The Dodecanese have been inhabited since prehistoric times. In the Neopalatial period on Crete, the islands were heavily Minoanized (contact beginning in the second millennium BC). Following