Greeks in Turkey east. The ethnonym "Yunanlar" is exclusively used by Turks to refer to Greeks from Greece and not for the population of Turkey. In Greek, Greeks from Asia Minor are referred to as or ("Mikrasiátes" or "Anatolítes", lit. "Asia Minor-ites" and "Anatolians"), while Greeks from Pontos (Pontic Greeks) are known as ("Póntioi"). Greeks from Istanbul are known as ("Konstantinoupolítes", lit. "Constantinopolites"), most often shortened to ("Polítes", pronounced po-LEE-tes). Those who arrived during the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey are also referred to as ("Prósfyges", i. e. "Refugees"). Greeks have been living in what is now Turkey continuously since the
Religions of the ancient Near East and Arabian religion. Judaism is a development of Canaanite religion, both Indo-European and Semitic religions influenced the ancient Greek religion, and Zoroastrianism was a product of ancient Indo-Iranian religion. In turn these religious traditions strongly influenced the later monotheistic religions of Christianity, Mandeanism, Sabianism, Gnosticism, Islam, and Manicheanism, which inherited their monotheism from Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The history of the ancient Near East spans more than two millennia, from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, in the region now known as the Middle East, centered on the Fertile Crescent. There was much cultural contact, so that it is