 Ethnic Macedonians argue that they have a more legitimate claim to the name "Macedonia" than modern Greek Macedonians who descend from the 638,000 Greek refugees who had emigrated from Anatolia, Epirus and Thrace and settled in Greek Macedonia during the early twentieth century.The expelled Refugees of the Greek Civil War which consisted of over 28,000 children made up by a significant portion of ethnic Macedonians (possibly the majority) had their citizenship revoked in Greece and the Greek government's actions in seizing citizenship has been "historically been used against people identifying as ethnic Macedonians".Greece eventually softened the law by allowing the return of "all Greeks by genus who during the Civil War of 1946–1949 and because of it have fled abroad as political refugees", although this further denied those who had fled Greece following the Civil War and identified as ethnic Macedonians, refusing any Greek ethnic designation to regain citizenship and resettle in their centuries-old properties..