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WESTERN THRACE

Documentary film about the Turkish community in Western Thrace on Al Jazeera Television

09.04.2020

A documentary film about the Turkish community in Western Thrace was aired on 8 April 2020 on the English language channel of Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera Television. The documentary film was filmed by Al Jazeera reporter and documentary film director Glenn Ellis who visited Western Thrace from 28 February to 7 March 2020.

In the documentary film entitled “Western Thrace, Contested Space: The Turks of northeast Greece”, the discrimination along with pressure, hate speech and attacks which the 150,000 strong Turkish community in Western Thrace in Greece have faced for years is detailed. The documentary, which also includes interviews with Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) and other leading representatives of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, explains the issues of the Turkish community with respect to mother tongue, education and mufti offices.

Ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace is not recognized by the Greek state

In the documentary film which indicates that there is a perception in the world that Greece is the cradle of democracy albeit that the collective ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace is rejected by the Greek state, it is indicated that former Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos had said that the minority living in Western Thrace is not an ethnic bur religious one in a speech he had delivered at an event held in Western Thrace in February 2020. 

Furthermore, the documentary expresses that the associations in Western Thrace having the word “Turkish” in their titles were closed down and their signboards were removed by the police, and notes that the judgment delivered  by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with respect to the closed Xanthi Turkish Union has yet not been implemented by Greece for the past 12 years, since 2008. 

The documentary also refers to the Greek state’s interventions in eliminating the educational and religious autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace. It is noted that discrimination against the Turkish community in Western Thrace begins at an early age, and that the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs closed five more Turkish primary schools having autonomous status last year and the number of Turkish primary schools closed in just eight years rose to 65. The documentary notes that the muftis elected by the Western Thrace Turks are not recognised by the government and that the Elected Mufti of Rodopi İbrahim Şerif had been sentenced to prison on grounds of “usurpation of the mufti office”. 

The documentary, which also describes hate speech and attacks targeting the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the pressures and threats aimed at intimidating its representatives, notes that many Western Thrace Turks did not want to speak on camera because they fear the pressure of the Greek state.

Please click here to watch the documentary film: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gv4UlVWsZA

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