Greek Muslims, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims, are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin whose adoption of Islam dates to the period of Ottoman rule in the southern Balkans. They consist primarily of the descendants of the elite Ottoman Janissary corps and Ottoman-era converts to Islam from Greek Macedonia , Crete , northeastern Anatolia and the Pontic Alps . They are currently found mainly in western Turkey and northeastern Turkey (particularly in the regions of Trabzon, Gümüşhane, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars . Despite their ethnic Greek origin, the contemporary Grecophone Muslims of Turkey regarding their identity have been steadily assimilated into the Turkish-speaking Muslim population. Apart from their elders, sizable numbers, even the young within these Grecophone Muslim communities have retained a knowledge of Greek and or its dialects such as Cretan Greek and Pontic Greek, though very few are likely to call themselves Greek Muslims. This is due to gradual assimilation into Turkish society, as well as the close association of Greece and Greeks with Orthodox Christianity and their perceived status as a historic, military threat to the Turkish Republic. In Greece, Greek-speaking Muslims are not usually considered as forming part of the Greek nation. In the late Ottoman period several communities of Grecophone Muslims from Crete and southern Greece were also relocated to Libya, Lebanon and Syria, where in towns like al-Hamidiyah some of the older generation continue to speak Greek. Historically, Greek Orthodoxy has been associated with being Romios, i.e. Greek, and Islam with being Turkish, despite ethnic or linguistic references.Most Greek speaking Muslims in Greece left for Turkey during the 1920s population exchanges under the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations . Due to the historical role of the millet system, religion and not ethnicity or language was the main factor used during the exchange of populations. All Muslims who departed Greece were seen as Turks, whereas all Orthodox people leaving Turkey were considered Greeks, regardless of ethnicity or language. An exception was made for Muslims in East Macedonia and Thrace, Northern Greece, who are officially recognized as a religious, but controversially not as an ethnic minority by the Greek Government.In Turkey, where most Greek-speaking Muslims live, there are various groups of Grecophone Muslims, some autochthonous, some from parts of present-day Greece and Cyprus who migrated to Turkey under the population exchanges or immigration.
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