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WESTERN THRACE

Greek Prime Minister imposes identity on Turkish community in Western Thrace

21.05.2021

ABTTF President: “We condemn the statements of our country’s Prime Minister Mitsotakis who ignores the Turkish community in Western Thrace and denies our Turkish identity. We call on our country which claims to be the cradle of democracy to immediately cease its policy of imposing identity on us and to respect our freedom to express ourselves.”

The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met online with the pupils and the teacher at the state kindergarten in the Turkish village of Pachni (Paşevik) in the Xanthi province of Western Thrace on 18 May 2021. The Greek Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Niki Kerameus and Deputy Minister Zeta Makri also attended the meeting which was held via a video conference.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Mitsotakis described the Turkish villages in Xanthi as “Pomak villages” and the children belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace as “Greek children”.

“We condemn the statements of our country’s Prime Minister Mitsotakis who ignores the Turkish community in Western Thrace and denies our Turkish identity. We call on our country which claims to be the cradle of democracy to immediately cease its policy of imposing identity on us and to respect our freedom to express ourselves. Only then will it be possible to talk about democracy in our country in real terms and the policy of ‘equality before the law’ put forward by Mitsotakis. On the other hand, we demand from the government that the citizens are asked to describe their ethnic identity in the upcoming census in our country. In this way, detailed information about the identity and culture of the people living in our country will be obtained”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).