Cretan Muslims in the context of "Turkish diaspora"

Greek Muslims, also known as Grecophone Muslims, are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin whose adoption of Islam (and often the Turkish language and identity in more recent times) dates either from the contact of early Islamic caliphates with the Byzantine Empire or to the period of Ottoman rule in the southern Balkans and Anatolia. In more recent times, they consist primarily of descendants of Ottoman-era converts to Islam from Greek Macedonia (e.g., Vallahades), Crete (Cretan Muslims), and northeastern Anatolia (particularly in the regions of Trabzon, Gümüşhane, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars).

Despite their ethnic Greek origin, the contemporary Grecophone Muslims of Turkey have been steadily assimilated into the Turkish-speaking Muslim population. Sizable numbers of Grecophone Muslims, not merely the elders but even young people, have retained knowledge of their respective Greek dialects, such as Cretan and Pontic Greek. Because of their gradual Turkification, as well as the close association of Greece and Greeks with Orthodox Christianity and their perceived status as a historic, military threat to the Turkish Republic, very few are likely to call themselves Greek Muslims. In Greece, Greek-speaking Muslims are not usually considered as forming part of the Greek nation.

The Vallahades (Greek: Βαλαχάδες) or Valaades (Greek: Βαλαάδες) are a Greek-speaking Muslim population who lived along the river Haliacmon in southwest Greek Macedonia, in and around Anaselitsa (modern Neapoli) and Grevena. They numbered about 17,000 in the early 20th century. They are a frequently referred-to community of late-Ottoman Empire converts to Islam, because, like the Cretan Muslims, and unlike most other communities of Greek Muslims, the Vallahades retained many aspects of their Greek culture and continued to speak Greek for both private and public purposes. Most other Greek converts to Islam from Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus generally adopted the Ottoman Turkish language and culture and thereby assimilated into mainstream Ottoman society.

Kalydon (Greek: Καλυδών) is an uninhabited island area near to and belonging to Elounda, Crete, Greece. It is made up of the island of Spinalonga, the Peninsula Spinalonga and the island of Kolokythas along with other smaller islets. The term Kalydon is often applied to each of the Spinalonga islands as their alternate historic name that was further re-established in modern Greek naming, whilst Spinalonga is still the preferred naming in the public.

In 1834, a population of 81 Muslim families is attested in the area. After the 1866 revolution a lot of other Cretan Muslims from other areas moved in. During the Cretan revolt of 1878, only Spinalonga and the fortress at Ierapetra were not taken by the Christian Cretan insurgents. In 1881 the 1112 Muslims formed their own community. When the island Spinalonga became a leper colony in 1903, the last Turks left the place.