Greek Muslims

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This article is about Muslims of Greek ethnic origin, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims, who today live mainly in Turkey. For the multiethnic Muslim minority in Thrace in Greece, see Muslim minority (Greece).

Greek Muslims, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims, are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin, and are found primarily in Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece, although migrations to Lebanon and Syria have been reported^[1]. The vast majority of the autochthonous Muslim minority in Greece (including the Greek-speaking Muslims), most of whom are fluent in Turkish, espouse a Turkish national identity. Historically, Greek Orthodoxy has been associated with being "Rum" (روم) and Islam with being "Turk" (Τούρκος), despite ethnic or linguistic references.

Most Greek-speaking Muslims in Greece left for Turkey during the 1920s' population exchanges under the Treaty of Lausanne (sometimes in return for Turkish-speaking Christians), with the exception of the Muslims in Thrace, who are officially recognized as a minority. The largest community of Greek-speaking Muslims in today's Greece is among Dodecanese Muslims who were spared from the population exchange due to Italian rule over the islands.

Contents 1 In Turkey 1.1 Greek Muslims of Pontus 1.2 Cretan Muslims 1.3 Epirote Muslims 1.4 Cypriot Muslims 2 In Cyprus 3 In Lebanon and Syria 4 Population 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] In Turkey

In Turkey, where most Greek-speaking Muslims live, there are various groups of Greek-speaking Muslims, some autochthonous, some from parts of present-day Greece and Cyprus who migrated to Turkey under the population exchanges or immigration.

[edit] Greek Muslims of Pontus

Muslims of Pontic Greek origins, speakers of the Pontic language (named Ρωμαίικα Roméika, not Ποντιακά Pontiaká as it is in Greece), which is spoken by some people in Tonya, Maçka, Sürmene, Çaykara, and Dernekpazarı districts of Trabzon. Due to mass migration from the region, high linguistic assimilation to Turkish, and the fact that the language has no official status, the total number of the speakers may be guessed; roughly 50,000 - 75,000 people. Ömer Asan estimated the number of people of Pontian Greek descent in Turkey at about 300,000 in 1996. The community is usually considered deeply religious Sunni Muslims of Hanafi madhhab. Sufi orders such as Qadiri and Naqshbandi have a great impact.

[edit] Cretan Muslims

Cretan Turks cover Muslims who arrived in Turkey after or slightly before the start of the Greek rule in Crete in 1908 and especially in the framework of the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations and have settled on the coastline stretching from the Çanakkale to İskenderun. Today, only elderly women may be found to be fluent in Greek and only estimates can be made regarding their number. They often name the language as Cretan (Kritika (Κρητικά) or Giritçe) instead of Greek. The Cretan Turks are Sunni (Hanafi) with a highly influential Bektashi minority that helped shape the folk Islam and religious tolerance of the entire community.

[edit] Epirote Muslims

Muslims from the region of Epirus, known collectively as Yanyalılar (Yanyalı in singular, meaning "person from Ioannina") in Turkish and Τουρκογιαννιώτες Turkoyanyótes in Greek (Τουρκογιαννιώτης Turkoyanyótis in singular, meaning "Turk from Ioannina"), who had arrived in two waves of migration in 1912 and after 1923 were known to be Greek-speaking, much like the Cretans, as a result of symbiosis with the Greek culture. Today, the community is fully integrated inside Turkey's culture.

[edit] Cypriot Muslims

Some communities among Turkish Cypriot immigrants who settled in Turkey following end of the Ottoman rule in the island (1878) were speaking Cypriot Greek. The last of such groups was reported to arrive at Antalya in 1936. These communities are thought to have abandoned Greek in the course of integration.^[2]

[edit] In Cyprus

[edit] In Lebanon and Syria

There are about 7,000 Greeks living in Lebanon (Tripoli) and about 3,000 in Syria (Hamidiye).^[3] The majority of them are Muslims of Cretan origin. Records suggest that the community left Crete between 1866 and 1897, on the outbreak of the last Cretan uprising against the Ottoman empire, which ended the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.^[3] Sultan Abdul Hamid II provided Cretan Muslim families who fled the island with refuge on the Levantine coast. The new settlement was named Hamidiye after the sultan.

Many Greek Muslims of Lebanon somewhat managed to preserve their identity and language. Unlike neighbouring communities, they are monogamous and consider divorce a disgrace, which demonstrates Orthodox Christian influences on their culture. Until the Lebanese Civil War, their community was close-knit and entirely endogamous. However many of them left Lebanon during the 15 years of the war.^[3]

Greek Muslims constitute 60% of Hamidiye's population. The community is very much concerned with maintaining its culture. The knowledge of the spoken Greek language is remarkably good and their contact with their historical homeland has been possible by means of satellite television and relatives. They are also known to be monogamous.^[3]

By 1988, many Greek Muslims from both Lebanon and Syria had reported being subject to discrimination by the Greek embassy because of their religious affiliation. The community members would be regarded with indifference and even hostility, and would be denied visas and opportunities to improve their Greek through trips to Greece.^[3]

[edit] Population

According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Greek is spoken by approximately, 600,000 people in Turkey [1], out of whom an estimated 5,000 are members of the remnants of Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul ^[4]. Greek sources place the number of Greek-speaking Muslims in Pontus at 300,000 ^[5]. It is sometimes claimed in Greece that some of the Greek Muslims of Pontus are in fact crypto-Christians (e.g. [2]).

[edit] See also

• Greek language
• Hamshenis
• Bulgarian Muslims
• Macedonian Muslims
• Pomaks

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Karalahana.com
• Trebizond Greek: A language without a tongue
• Radio Ocena