Turks of the Dodecanese "Adalı" is sometimes used (meaning "islanders"). The president of their association Mazlum Paizanoglou estimates the number in Rhodes as 2500 and in Kos as 2000. http://arsiv.ntv.com.tr/news/23898.asp Turks of the Dodecanese The Turks of the Dodecanese are a community of 2,000 Turkish-speaking people and ethnic Turks living on the Dodecanese islands of Rhodes () and Kos () who were not affected by the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, since the islands were under the rule of the Kingdom of Italy at the time (from 1912). All inhabitants of the islands became Greek citizens after 1947 when the islands became
Dodecanese campaign when Italian forces recaptured the island of Kastellorizo from British commandos. After the Battle of Greece in April 1941 and the Allied defeat in the Battle of Crete in May 1941, Greece and its many islands were occupied by the Axis powers. With the defeat of Axis forces in the North African campaign in spring 1943, Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, who at least as far back as the Gallipoli campaign in World War I had a deep interest in the region, turned his sights on the islands. The British envisaged an operation to capture the Dodecanese and Crete,