Turks of the Dodecanese
The Turks of the Dodecanese (Turkish: On İki Ada Türkleri) are a community of ethnic Turks, indigenous Greek Muslims and Cretan Muslims living on the Dodecanese islands of Rhodes (Turkish: Rodos) and Kos (Turkish: İstanköy). == History == The Dodecanese was gradually settled by Turks from the Anatolian mainland from the 1480s onwards, added to by the Greek Muslims whose ancestors on the islands converted to Islam in the Ottoman period and were consequently referred to as 'Turks' as a synonym for Ottoman Muslim rather than because of their actual ethnic origin.