Thrace

Exploratory contacts between Greece and Turkey resume Monday at Istanbul's Swissotel, with Athens having particularly low expectations of a substantial outcome due to the different agendas set by both sides.

In response to the government's plans to introduce a minimum university entrance grade, the Rectors' Synod on Friday said it will get on board as long as the expected drop in admissions does not affect funding. 

Abdulharis Pasha of Strandzha, a mountainous region that straddles modern-day Turkey and Bulgaria, was the son of an Ottoman lord.

He joined the Ottoman army as a commander during the 16th Century siege of Vienna, and was made a pasha to combat Balkan bandits - although later he went on to become a bandit himself.

Turkey slammed a "racist threat message" on Nov. 28 in northeastern Greece written on an elevator of an apartment building that is the residence of Mufti Ahmet Mete of Xanthi.

"Sixty or seventy per cent of our customers are now Bulgarians," says Yilmaz Sanis, president of the Association of the Historic Ali Pasa Bazaar in Edirne, Thrace, and owner of a shoe shop in the bazaar.

"They contribute to the market a lot," he told BIRN. "It is a great advantage for Thrace at a time when our jobs are suffering from economic conditions, and the pandemic."

Turkey slammed Greece on Aug. 11 over systematically closing down Turkish minority schools in the country's Western Thrace region, depriving the minority of the education of their choosing.

On a visit on Thursday to a school in the town of Glafki in Xanthi, in the northern region of Thrace, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou was given a bouquet of flowers by a student in traditional dress.

Archaeologists from the Deultum-Debelt National Archaeological Reserve near Bulgaria's Burgas have discovered the first written evidence that the Roman colony Deultum had a port, BGNES reported.

The inscription was found on limestone sarcophagus, dating from the II-III century AD.

The Democritus University of Thrace in northeastern Greece is seeking to build new, ecologically friendly student dorms and research facilities that will contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of its campuses in the towns of Alexandroupoli, Komotini and Xanthi.

Artifacts unearthed during excavations in ancient cities in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ and exhibited in the Tekirdağ Museum shed light on the Thracian civilization.

The Thracian people, who lived in Thrace, Bulgaria and northern Greece in the ancient ages, were known as the world's most populous tribe after Hindus, according to Greek historian and ancient writer Heredot.