Western Thrace

Greek Thrace (Greek: Θράκη, romanized: Thráki) is a geographic and historical region of Greece, in the northeast of the country. Greek Thrace is divided into three regional units (former prefectures): Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros (including the island of Samothrace), which together with the Macedonian regional units of Drama, Kavala and Thasos form the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Its largest city is Alexandroupolis, an important port and commercial center of Northern Greece. Greek Thrace is also called Western Thrace (Greek: Δυτική Θράκη, romanized: Dytikí Thráki, IPA: [ðitiˈci ˈθɾaci]), as it constitutes the western part of the wider geographical region of Thrace; the European part of Turkey constitutes Eastern Thrace, while most of southern Bulgaria constitutes Northern Thrace. Inhabited since Paleolithic times, Thrace has been under the political, cultural and linguistic influence of the Greek world since antiquity. Thrace was part of the Byzantine themes of Thrace and Macedonia and a center of medieval Greek culture and commerce, benefiting from its position close to the imperial capital of Constantinople. After the Byzantine civil war of 1352–1357, the region was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, marking the birth of the Muslim minority of modern Greece.