When we're talking about 500 years ago and say "Greek," we aren't referring to the modern nations. It means the Greek people. But I think with food it's usually

When we're talking about 500 years ago and say "Greek," we aren't referring to the modern nations. It means the Greek people. But I think with food it's usually an unsolvable mystery which exact culture invented it or whatever. The Ottoman Empire's own administration did categorize its peoples sorta based on religion and apply different laws to them. The millets were Muslims, Armenians, Greeks, Circassians, and more. These were meaningful designations at least because of how marriage tended to stay within the same religious sect. Besides that, I've heard the closest thing to a national identity back then was the nearest city, rather than the empire. The major cities in that region were ethnically diverse, so some of your culture specifically had to do with your city, while other aspects had to do with your ethnicity/religion. In this case, baklava supposedly originated in Antep. I don't know what the ethnic makeup was like in the 1500s there, but I'd wager it was picked up by multiple cultures around the same time there (someone can prove me wrong if not). So if you really want to give "credit" to some people for it, I think Antep is the most correct answer, and I don't just mean PC.