ABTTF President: “It is hoped that Patriarch Bartholomew, during his next visit to our country, will use the same constructive language he used in his interview with the government regarding our minority. As Bartholomew himself indicated, our motherland has taken many positive steps in recent years to improve the situation of the Greek Orthodox minority. However, our country, far from taking positive steps for our minority, systematically usurps the rights guaranteed to our minority by bilateral and international treaties through various laws and practices”.
In an interview with the Hürriyet newspaper on 12 June 2026, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew noted that the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, Greece, and the Greek Orthodox minority in Türkiye should not be treated based on the course of relations between the two countries, nor should they be held hostage to political conflicts.
Noting that significant progress had been made in recent years regarding the rights and religious freedoms of non-Muslim minorities in Türkiye, Bartholomew explained that, as members of the Greek Orthodox minority, they wished to be treated equally, just like all other citizens of the Republic of Türkiye, and that he believed this same aspiration was shared by members of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace in Greece.
Referring to the wars and countless armed conflicts taking place around the world, Bartholomew highlighted that war is a grave sin and emphasised that the solution to any dispute must lie solely in dialogue.
“As ABTTF, we have always emphasised that the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace and the Greek Orthodox minority—who share the same fate as set out in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne—must not be used as a bargaining chip in relations between our country, Greece, and our motherland, Türkiye. It is hoped that Patriarch Bartholomew, during his next visit to our country, will use the same constructive language he used in his interview with the government regarding our minority. As Bartholomew himself indicated, our motherland has taken many positive steps in recent years to improve the situation of the Greek Orthodox minority. However, our country, far from taking positive steps for our minority, systematically usurps the rights guaranteed to our minority by bilateral and international treaties through various laws and practices. Our country, which denies our minority’s ethnic Turkish identity, is banning our associations bearing the name ‘‘Turkish’’. Whilst Bartholomew is received at the highest level by the President of our motherland, our country refuses to recognise the muftis freely elected by our minority and is transforming our mufti offices into ordinary public offices, in contravention of our religious autonomy’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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