Xanthi (regional unit)

Xanthi regional unit Περιφερειακή Ενότητα Ξάνθης (Ξάνθη)
Basic data
State :	Greece
Region :	East Macedonia and Thrace
Area :	1,793 km²
Residents :	111,222 (2011)
Population density :	62 inhabitants / km²
NUTS 3 code no. :	EL512
Structure:	4 municipalities
Website:	www.xanthi.gr

Xanthi ( Greek Ξάνθη [ ˈksanθi ]] ( f. Sg. )) Is one of the six regional districts of the Greek region of East Macedonia and Thrace around the capital Xanthi . Xanthi had the status of a province in Rodopi Prefecture until 1944 . After being spun off from Rodopi, it formed its own prefecture until 1994 , then it was merged with the prefectures Drama and Kavala to form the over-prefecture Drama-Kavala-Xanthi for the prefectural elections in 1994 . With the administrative reform in 2010 , the prefectures were abolished and their competencies were transferred to the region and the municipalities, which were considerably enlarged by the amalgamation. The regional district sends nine members to the regional council, but has no further political significance. Xanthi includes the parishes of Avdira , Myki , Topiros and Xanthi.

geography

Lake Vistonida in the southeast of the district is an important nature reserve .

population

The population of the regional district is made up of the Greek majority as well as Turks , Roma and Pomaks who speak a dialect of the Bulgarian language .

The area, which had belonged to the Ottoman Empire since the end of the 14th century , was multi-ethnic and multi-religious for centuries. With the emergence of nationalism at the end of the 19th century, it was soon claimed by the relatively young states of Greece and Bulgaria . A small area around Stavroupoli came to Greece in 1912/1913 after the end of the Second Balkan War through the Treaty of London and was initially administered by the Macedonian prefecture of Drama. The remaining area of ​​Xanthis was fought over in the Balkan Wars and in the First World War between the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and Greece and was placed under new rule by various international treaties. So it fell by the Treaty of London (1913) of Bulgaria, was under the same year for a short time the group formed by Turks Provisional Government of Western Thrace , was back Bulgarian ( Treaty of Bucharest , 1913), fell after the First World War under management in France for the Entente ( Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine , 1919) and shortly afterwards to Greece ( Treaty of Sèvres , 1920), which was finally confirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) after the Greco-Turkish War .

The changing rule over Western Thrace led to different refugee movements, affecting Muslims and Greek and Bulgarian Orthodox at different times. Between 1913 and 1919, many Greek residents left the area to the west, while Turks fled to the Ottoman Empire and Bulgarians were settled. From 1920 onwards, numerous Greeks returned. The Bulgarian Orthodox inhabitants of Xanthis, known as Thracian Bulgarians in Bulgaria , were expelled from Western Thrace to Bulgaria in several stages between 1878 and 1913. In return, as a result of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the Greeks who remained there had to leave what is now Bulgarian territory in northern Thrace.

According to the Treaty of Lausanne, Xanthi, like all of Greek Thrace, was excluded from the population exchange between Greece and Turkey after 1923, so that Muslim Turks, Pomaks and Roma could remain in the country. Numerous Greek- and Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians came to them as refugees from the newly founded Turkey , where only Constantinople and the islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada were excluded from the exchange.

The 1928 Greek census also collected data on the residents' place of birth, mother tongue and religion. From it the following picture emerges:

Population of Xanthi Province according to the 1928 Greek census

religion	total	Christian			Muslim	Jewish
language		orth.	cath.	prot.
Greek	44,343	44,245	27	7th	43	21st
Turkish	27,565	2,988	2	1	24,574	-
Bulgarian	14,260	3	-	-	14,257	-
Armenian	1,143	1,079	2	1	7th	-
" Spanish "	694	-	-	-	-	694
" Gypsy "	547	149	-	-	398	-
" Macedonon Slavonic "	296	294	-	2	-	-
Albanian	177	2	-	-	175	-
Russian	41	41	-	-	-	-
" Koutzovlachian "	37	37	-	-	-	-
Italian	12	-	9	-	-	3
English	8th	3	1	3	1	-
other languages	143	54	17th	7th	58	7th
total	89,266	48,895	83	47	39,513	725

As for the place of birth of residents, the census shows a total of 55,054 people born in Greece. This contrasts with 34,212 people of other origins, most of them from non-Greek Thrace (15,028), followed by immigrants from Asia Minor (9,799) and the Pontus (3,486) and Bulgaria (3,579).

Web links

Commons : Xanthi Prefecture  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Web presence of the Drama-Kavala-Xanthi Prefecture (Greek)
• Presentation of the prefecture from its website ( memento from February 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ; 2.11 MB) (Greek, English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Results of the 2011 census at the National Statistical Service of Greece (ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ) ( Memento from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Excel document, 2.6 MB)
2. ^ Greek, Law Gazette No. 35 of 1944 (PDF, 309 kB)
3. ↑ Christoph Pan: The minority rights in Greece . In: Christoph Pan, Beate Sibylle Pfeil: Minority Rights in Europe . Second revised and updated edition (Handbook of European Ethnic Groups, Volume 2). Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-211-35307-3 , p. 202
4. ↑ George X. Kalantzis: Outcomes of the First World War in South Eastern Europe: Population Movements in Western Thrace During the Inter-Allied Administration . In: Études Balkaniques . No. 3 . Sofia 2004, p. 24-41 .
5. ↑ Elizabeth Kontogiorgi: Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia. The Rural Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930 . Clarendon Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 0-19-927896-2 , p. 229.
6. ↑ Results of the Greek population censuses 1879–2001 as PDF