East Thrace East Thrace East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( or simply "Trakya"; , "Anatoliki Thraki"; , "Iztochna Trakiya"), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the part of the modern Republic of Turkey that is geographically part of Southeast Europe. It accounts for 3% of Turkey's land area but comprises 14% of Turkey's total population. The rest of the country is located on the Anatolian peninsula, geographically in Western Asia. East Thrace is of historic importance as it is next to a major sea-based trade corridor. It is currently also of specific geostrategic importance because the sea corridor, that
Thrace (theme) Thrace (theme) The Theme of Thrace () was a province ("thema" or theme) of the Byzantine Empire located in the south-eastern Balkans, comprising varying parts of the eponymous geographic region during its history. Traditionally, it has been held that the theme (at the time primarily a military command) was constituted in c. 680, as a response to the Bulgar threat. This is based on the mention of a certain "patrikios" Theodore, Count of the "Opsikion" and "hypostrategos" of Thrace, in 680/681. However, it is unclear whether this implies the existence of Thrace as a separate command, with Theodore holding a