Thrace Europe. The word "Thrace" was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from ancient Greek Thrake (Θρᾴκη), descending from "Thrāix" (Θρᾷξ). The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, prior to extending its meaning to the whole continent. The region could have been named after the principal river there, Hebros, possibly from the Indo-European "arg" "white river" (the opposite of Vardar, meaning "black river"), . According to an alternative theory, Hebros means "goat" in Thracian. In Turkey, it is commonly referred to as "Rumeli", "Land of the Romans", owing to this region being the
History of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocides. As a result, the 20th century saw a sharp decline of the number of Orthodox Christians, and of Christians in general, in the Anatolian peninsula amidst complaints of Turkish governmental repression of various Eastern and Oriental Orthodox groups. During the Lausanne Conference in 1923, the Turkish and Greek sides after some discussions accepted the proposal of a population exchange. Muslims in Greece (save the ones in Eastern Thrace) were expelled to Turkey, and Greek Orthodox people in Turkey (save the ones in Istanbul) were expelled to Greece. In