On the night of July 4, 2004, Greeks across the globe celebrated their national team's triumph in winning the European Championship Cup of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The victory had been unexpected and the celebrations, which lasted until the next morning, largely spontaneous. Urban streets everywhere in Greece filled with people clad in Greek flags and in plastic replicas of Alexander the Great's helmet; cars hooted past, horns blowing to that well-known five-and-six-beat rhythm signifying soccer victory, the air thick with the bright fumes of celebratory crackers. In the towns of Thrace, where the majority of Greece's Turkish population lives, the scene was the same: loud, celebratory, and full of nationalist symbols. In Komotini, the capital of Thrace, minority members watched and listened, some with apprehension, others with excitement about the unexpected victory.