A history of survival: The Turkish-Muslim minority in rural Western Thrace

This study explores the survival strategies of the Turkish Mus-lim minority rurals in Greece from the Balkan Wars (1913) until today. It scrutinizes how the minority has survived squeezed in between Greece and Turkey in the historical course of the chequered bilateral relations. Focusing on the rural community in different geographies (highland, middle-line and lowland villages) of Greek Thrace, it elucidates how the rurals devised their strategies of survival in certain histori-cal ruptures by focusing on their narrations about how they remember the past and how their past experiences influenced their survival strategies. Social hierarchies within the rural community, intercommunal relations with the local Greek Or-thodox, interactions between the minority institutions and the elite, and their historical bonds with Turkey are explored to find out their impact on the rurals' survival strategies and the social changes and continuities within the rural community.