Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe be declared as having lost Greek nationality...” The Turkish minority was forced to migrate. While the vast majority of migration wave was towards Turkey, some groups chose to migrate to other European countries, in particular to Germany. Today, the population of Western Thrace Turks in Germany amounts to 30,000. A considerable number of Western Thrace Turks live in other EU Member States, such as the Netherlands, England, Sweden, France, Belgium and Austria. The need to keep alive their cultural values and maintain solidarity in their host countries led the Western Thrace Turks to create collectively created associations. In Germany, the
Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Thrace Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Thrace The Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Tracia (informally Tracia of the Bulgarians) was the second missionary, pre-diocesan jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church "sui iuris" (Eastern Catholic, Byzantine Rite in Bulgarian language). As Apostolic Vicariate it was exempt, i.e. directly dependent on the Holy See, and entitled to a titular bishop. It was established on 7 April 1883 as Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Tracia alias Hadrianopolis (after its see Adrianople, now Edirne, in Turkish Thrace) on Ottoman Turkish and Bulgarian territory in Thrace split off from the Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of