Muslim minority of Greece Greeks were required to leave Turkey, and the 356,000 Muslims outside of Thrace were required to leave Greece, including the Muslim Greek Vallahades of western Greek Macedonia. Consequently, most of the Muslim minority in Greece resides in the Greek region of Thrace, where they make up 28.88% of the population. Muslims form the largest group in the Rhodope regional unit (41.77%) and sizable percentages in the Xanthi (31.19%) and Evros regional units (4.65%). Nearly 300 Turks remain on the island of Rhodes and 200 on the island of Kos, as the islands were part of the Italian Dodecanese when the
Dodecanese campaign Allies lost six destroyers sunk and two cruisers and two destroyers damaged between 7 September and 28 November 1943. After the fall of Leros, Samos and the other smaller islands were evacuated. The Germans bombed Samos with Ju 87 ("Stukas") of I "Gruppe, Stukageschwader" 3 in Megara, prompting the 2,500-strong Italian garrison to surrender on 22 November. Along with the occupation of the smaller islands of Patmos, Fournoi and Ikaria on 18 November, the Germans completed their conquest of the Dodecanese, which they held until the end of the war. Only the island of Castellorizo off the Turkish coast was