ABTTF President: “Stylianidis has pursued his habit of distorting the facts with the statement he made and ignored that the ECtHR has condemned our country Greece for this reason three times for denying our Turkish identity.”
The New Democracy (ND) Party Rodopi MP Evripidis Stylianidis alleged that the rights of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in Greece are respected during the interview he gave to THEMA 104.6 Radio.
Commenting on the former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ statement that President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s next target (Western) is Thrace, Stylianidis said that following the post-military junta, the Greek Republic has built an open democratic model of society in (Western) Thrace, an argument that can withstand international comparisons and also proves that modern Greece fully respects human and minority rights.
“Stylianidis has pursued his habit of distorting the facts with the latest statement he made. Stylianidis’ claim that our country is building an open democratic society in Western Thrace is absurd while in fact it has grabbed our education and religious autonomy which is guaranteed by bilateral and multilateral treaties and denied our ethnic Turkish identity. This is so much the case as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in its resolution dated 26 January 2021 and by referring to three judgements of the European Court of Human Rights regarding Western Thrace Turkish associations, called upon our country to rapidly implement these judgements. All of this shows that in contradiction to the statement of Stylianidis how biased and discriminatory our country’s policy towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace is”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
