ABSTRACT
From the beginning, Turkish nationalists wanted to enhance the participation of the Turkish element in the country's commercial life and to reduce the economic influence of the minorities. Both the Turkish minority in Greece and the Greek minority in Turkey have experienced difficulties over their treatment and status for many years. The issue over the treatment of minorities is actually older than the disputes over Cyprus and the maritime boundary disagreements in the Aegean and has caused occasional aggravations in Greek-Turkish relations since the Lausanne settlement of 1923. In due course, the compromise reached by Greece and Turkey over Cyprus in 1959 that led to independence had a favourable effect on the status of the Greek community and the Patriarchate in Turkey, as it had on the conditions of the Turkish community in Greece. As the Cyprus dispute worsened in the 1960s, and Greece and Turkey became more bellicose towards each other, the pressures on the Western Thrace Turks intensified.
