Thrace Basin Thrace Basin The European side of Turkey is called the Thrace Basin. It is the largest and thickest Cenozoic sedimentary basin in Turkey. The basin is triangular shaped, trends WNW-ESE and was formed by extension in late Middle Eocene to latest Oligocene times. This gas prone basin is located northwest of Istanbul, Turkey. About 9,000 meters of Eocene-Miocene marine clastics and continental sediments were deposited. Several basement faults were reactivated and underwent strike-slip motion in late Miocene times where the famous North Anatolian Fault bounds the southern part of the basin. The Cenozoic sedimentary succession, overlying Paleozoic to Mesozoic metamorphic
Western Thrace demographics of the region toward increased ethnic homogenization within the territories each respective country ultimately was awarded. This was followed by the large-scale Greek-Turkish population exchanges of 1923 (Treaty of Lausanne), which finalized the reversal of Western and Eastern Thrace region's pre-Balkan War demography. The treaty granted the status of a minority to the Muslims in Western Thrace, in exchange for a similar status for the ethnic Greek minority in Istanbul and the Aegean islands of Imbros and Tenedos. After the German invasion (April 1941), the area was occupied by Bulgarian troops, as part of the triple Axis occupation of