Greek Muslims
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Languages | |
| Turkish, Greek (Pontic Greek, Cretan Greek, Cypriot Greek), Georgian, Russian, Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Greeks, Turks |
Greek Muslims, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims, are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin whose adoption of Islam (and often the Turkish language and identity) 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 (e.g., Vallahades), Crete (Cretan Muslims), northeastern Anatolia and the Pontic Alps (Pontic Greeks). They are currently found mainly in western Turkey (particularly the regions of Izmir, Bursa, and Edirne) and northeastern Turkey (particularly in the regions of Trabzon, Gümüşhane, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars (see also Caucasus Greeks of Georgia and Kars Oblast and Islam in Georgia).
Despite their ethnic Greek origin, the contemporary Grecophone Muslims of Turkey regarding their identity have been steadily assimilated into the Turkish-speaking (and in the northeast Laz-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 (particularly following the Greco-Turkish war of 1897–98) 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.
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