East Thrace or Eastern Thrace, also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey or Turkey in Europe, is the part of Turkey that is geographically in Southeast Europe. Turkish Thrace or also known as European Turkey accounts for 3 percent of Turkey's land area (an area of 23 764 km2) and 12 percent of the population. Asiatic Turkey, called Anatolia or Asia Minor, has an area of 755 688 km2 (97 percent of the country). The two are separated by the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara and Straits of the Bosphorus, a route of about 361 km. The largest city is Istanbul, which straddles the Bosporus between Europe and Asia. East Thrace is of historic importance as it is next to a major sea trade corridor. It is currently also of specific geostrategic importance because the sea corridor, which includes two narrow straits, provides access to the Mediterranean Sea 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, Bulgarian, and Greek high-speed rail networks.
Due to the guest worker agreement with Turkey and Germany, some Turks in Germany originally come from Eastern Thrace, mostly from the Kırklareli Province.
Definition
East Thrace sometimes refers to the eastern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is also used for the part of Thrace that is inside Turkey. 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. The land borders of East Thrace were defined by the Treaty of Constantinople (1913) and the Bulgarian-Ottoman convention (1915) and were reaffirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne.
Geography
Turkish Thrace or also known as European Turkey accounts for 3 percent of Turkey's land area (an area of 23 764 km2) and 12 percent of the population. Asiatic Turkey, called Anatolia or Asia Minor, has an area of 755 688 km2 (97 percent of the country). The two are separated by the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara and Straits of the Bosphorus, a route of about 361 km (224 mi). The southernmost part of eastern Thrace is called the Gallipoli peninsula. East Thrace is bordered on the west by Greece and on the north by Bulgaria, with the Aegean Sea to the southwest and the Black Sea to the northeast.
