Turks of the Dodecanese
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Turks of the Dodecanese is a 5,000-strong community of ethnic Turks inhabiting the Dodecanese islands of Rhodes and Kos (İstanköy in Turkish) who had not been affected by the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey since the islands were under Italian rule at the time (since 1912) and who became Greek citizens after 1947 when the islands became part of Greece.
The Turks in Kos were about 3,000 till the 1960s, when tensions among Greece and Turkey rised. The population has declined now to a few hundred, all living in the village of Platani.[1] They are organized around Turkish Muslim Association of Kos ("İstanköy Türk Müslüman Derneği") which gives the figure 2,000 for the population they bring together and represent for their island.[2]
Those in Rhodes are organized around the Turkish Association of Rhodes (Rodos Türk Derneği), which gives the figure 3,500 for the population they bring together and represent for their island.[3]
The Turkish terms used for the members of the community can vary depending on different specifications, such as "Oniki Ada Türkleri" for the exact equivalent of the term "Turks of the Dodecanese", or either "Rodos Türkleri" or "İstanköy Türkleri" depending on whether they are from Rhodes or Kos, or "Giritli" since some had emigrated to the Dodecanese in the processus of adhesion of Crete to Greece or due to cultural similarities with Cretan Turks, or "Adalı" to denote the general meaning of "Islanders".
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