ABTTF President: “The words used by the Secretary General Kalantzis at the Commission for the Development of Thrace once again showed that the Greek state is not willing to engage in a sincere and direct dialogue with the Turkish community in Western Thrace with a constructive and realistic approach.”
The Secretary General of Greece’s Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs George Kalantzis responded to the questions regarding mufti offices, madrassahs and foundations (waqfs) at the meeting of the inter-party Commission for the Development of Thrace on 14 October 2020.
According to the Millet newspaper, the Secretary General Kalantzis, who responded to the question of the KINAL MP İlhan Ahmet from Rodopi with respect to how the process of designation of muftis would function, said that there would be no election for the designation of muftis.
Furthermore, Kalantzis argued that the madrasahs in Komotini and Xanthi are of status of Orthodox religious schools bound to the church in Greece and that according to that procedure, the natural functioning includes the fact that the mufti is the chairman of the school board. In the response he gave to a question regarding the elections of the administrative boards of the foundations (waqfs) belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace, Kalantzis indicated that there are some reservations to have open and collective voting in an institution with the status of a religious foundation.
“In the responses he delivered to the questions addressed to him at the Commission for the Development of Thrace, the Secretary General George Kalantzis declared that the government’s measures violating the religious autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace which is guaranteed by international treaties will continue as they are. The words used by Kalantzis once again showed that the Greek state is not willing to engage in a sincere and direct dialogue with the Turkish community in Western Thrace with a constructive and realistic approach. As the Turkish community in Western Thrace, we request for our muftis we have elected to be recognised by the government, for the immediate cancellation of the judicial provisions which have led to the dispossession of the administration of our madrassahs with autonomous status and for the administrative boards of our foundations (waqfs) to be designated by election”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.milletgazetesi.gr
