Turks of the Dodecanese is a 5,000-strong ^{[citation needed]} community of ethnic Turks inhabiting the Dodecanese islands of Rhodes and Kos (İstanköy in Turkish) who had not been affected by the 1923 Exchange of populations 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 Dodecanese (Greek: Δωδεκάνησα, Dodekánisa, meaning twelve islands; see also List of traditional Greek place names) are a group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey. ... Location map of Rhodes Rhodes, (Greek: Ρόδος (pron. ... Port of Kos Archaeological site Tree of Hippocrates Roman amphitheater Kos town view Kos or Cos (, Greek Κως, Turkish Ä°stanköy, Italian Coo; formerly Stanchio in English) is a Greek island in the Dodecanese group of islands, in the Aegean Sea, which it separates from the Gulf of Cos. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cartoon The 1923 Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey refers to the first large scale population exchange, or agreed mutual expulsion in the 20th century. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ...

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]

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". Crete (Greek: Κρήτη Kríti; Turkish: Girit) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... Cretan Turks (Turkish Giritli, plural Giritliler, Giritli Türkler, Türk Giritliler or Girit Türkleri; Greek Τουρκοκρητικοί Turkokritiki) are a Muslim population of Turkey descending from the 30,000-strong Muslim Cretan minority that was expelled from Crete in 1923 (see Treaty of Lausanne). ...

See also

• Minorities in Greece
• Turks of Western Thrace
• Muslim minority of Greece