East Thrace includes two narrow straits, provides access to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea for the navies of five countries: Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and Georgia. The region also serves as a future connector of existing Turkish and European high speed rail networks. East Thrace includes all in the eastern part of the historical region of Thrace. The area includes all the territories of the Turkish provinces of Edirne, Tekirdağ and Kırklareli, as well as those territories on the European Continent of the provinces of Çanakkale and Istanbul. Due to the moderating effect of the surrounding seas, the climate tends to
Thrace largely covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is East Thrace. The largest cities of Thrace were: Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Sliven, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Istanbul, Çorlu, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Orthodox Christians, while most of the Turkish