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BALKAN

PENINSULA

political reasons by the Turkish Government. The whole Albanian nation possibly numbers from 1,500,000 to 1,600,000. The Greeks, whose immigration from Asia Minor took place in pre-historic times, are, next to the Albanians, the oldest race in the Peninsula. Their maritime and commercial instincts have led them from the

San Stefano Treaty. Frontiers m 1856.

earliest times to found settlements on the sea-coast and the islands. They inhabit the Black Sea littoral from Varna to the Bosphorus, the shores of the Sea of Marmora and the Aegean, the archipelago of the latter sea, the mainland of Greece, Epirus, and the western islands as far north as Corfu. In Constantinople they probably

Ceded to Greece in 1881 [ Restored Co Turkey in 1886

Sketch Map of the Balkan Peninsula. and gypsies. The Armenians, like the Greeks, congregate exceed 300 000. They are seldom found in large numbers at any Jews, the principal centres of trade, especially at Constantinople; great distance from the sea except in the principal towns and com- in their numbers greatly reduced by the massacres of 1896. 1 He mercial centres, such as Adrianople, Braila, Galadz, and Philip- Jews are most were numerous the Rumanian towns and at haloniEa, popolis, and in detached colonies at Melnik, Stammaka, Kavakh, where they form half theinpopulation: the Rumanian Jews belong Negush, and elsewhere. The Greek inhabitants of the Peninsula to the Ashkenazim, the Macedonian and Bulgarian to the bephardim. and adjacent islands probably number 4,500,000. The remainder The gypsies are scattered widely throughout the Peninsula ; they of the population is for the most part composed of Armenians,