| Summary: | The aim of the paper was to determine the current state of the Turkish minority in the Greek regions of Central Macedonia and Thrace. Specifically, Xanthi (Thrace) and Thessaloniki (Central Macedonia) were of prime interest. The field research was conducted in the second largest Greek city of Thessaloniki, where historical and socially relevant sites of the Turkish minority were visited. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted at the headquarters of the Turkish Embassy. This house was the birthplace of the first President of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Nowadays, this house serves as a museum and is visited mainly by Turks. Thessaloniki has well documented tourist locations around the city except for the Atatürk museum, which also has very few Greek visitors. The field research continued in Xanthi and its surroundings. In Xanthi, the field research included an initial observation followed by semi-structured interviews. These techniques were performed in the old Turkish quarter, two minority schools, a local mosque, and a traditional Turkish restaurant. The consensus of the interviewees was that they “feel” that they are Turkish, but their homeland is Greece. Similarly, they consider their native language is Turkish, while Greek is deemed essential for living. Turkish minority children attend local minority schools and in many cases commute from surrounding villages to the schools. For college, students must leave Greece for Turkey if they want to study in the Turkish language since this option is not available in Greece. The Greek language that is utilized in Greek universities is typically more difficult and specialized than the everyday Greek used by the Turkish minority and therefore this group prefers to study in Turkey or at another European university. The areas with the highest concentration of a minority Turkish population do not perceive discrimination from the majority Greek population due to their long-term cohabitation. Nonetheless, when members of this minority leave this area, they experience discriminatory behavior due with their faith and ethnicity.
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