The problems above are even graver for the section of the Turkish Minority who live in the military restricted zone and make up the largest enclave group in the world today. During the turbulent period leading up to the Second World War, the mountainous area of Western Thrace and all the northern regions of Greece were put under military control and this was maintained during the Greek Civil War as "a measure taken against the spread of communism".
The establishment of the military restriction zone is stipulated by Greek law (376/1936) . The civil war ended 50 years ago, but this restriction was never lifted from the northern third of Western Thrace, extending between the Nestos and Evros rivers, and encompassing parts of the prefectorates of Xanthi, Rodopi and Evros. Even today, after Communism has collapsed, the restricted military zone continues to exist without justification, constituting a bitter anachronism in an era where cooperation reigns and borders are fading.
All the inhabitants of the Xanthi, Rodopi and Evros sectors of this restricted military zone are ethnic Turks. They number around 40.000 and live in 118 villages. There is not a single ethnic Greek village in this area. As to the segment of the military zone in the Evros prefectorate, where the local Turks were subjected to vicious policies of forced expatriation and immigration with a view to "cleansing" the land, 7 Turkish villages still continue their existence.
All the roads leading to the restricted military zone are blocked by military checkpoints. In order to go in and out of the restricted military zone, anyone living within the zone has to produce a special identity card at the checkpoints. Anyone living outside the zone and wishing to visit it has to obtain special short-duration permits issued by the authorities in charge.
Even the people who hold those permits, can only travel within an area that has a diameter of 30 kilometers when their homes are taken as center of the said diameter. In case they wish to travel any further, they need to obtain another permission.
Moreover, access to and from the restricted military zone is forbidden from midnight to 5 a.m.
Ethnic Turks inhabiting this huge enclave are not only deprived of their basic right to freely travel from one place to another in their own country, they are also relegated to wretched economic and social conditions even when compared to their kinsmen outside the zone. It is not by chance that the most underdeveloped regions in Greece are within the military restricted zone. Rigid restrictions on farming, forestry and manufacturing induce the locals of the zone live mainly on animal husbandry. Roads, telephones and other means of communication, health services, running water in houses and other basic facilities are either rudimentary or non-existent. As a result, there is a growing tendency among young people to leave the land of their birth and migrate.
Education and religious services are also of especially poor quality in the military restricted zone. The inhabitants of the zone are victims of policies aimed at destroying their Turkish ethnic identity. These policies are pursued by lowering the quality of schools and mosques by staffing them with unqualified teachers and religious men, specially handpicked by the Greek Government. Yet again, this is a clear usurpation of the rights of the Turkish Minority recognized by the Treaty of Lausanne, which stipulates total freedom in the fields of education and religion.
The restricted military zone is rigidly secluded from the outer world. Border crossings at Xanthi and Rodopi, between Greece and Bulgaria, remain firmly sealed. Local businessmen regularly appeal for the reopening of these crossings on grounds that it would boost local trade and development. The Greek authorities turn a blind eye to these appeals.