ABTTF President: ‘It is unrealistic to claim that the model of co-existence in the region reflects the quality and depth of modern Greek democracy. Indeed, the Turkish community in Western Thrace has been further isolated due to the lack of recognition of the ethnic Turkish identity in the region, which Stylianidis says is alone, the violation of the freedom to form associations, and the usurpation of the freedom to choose its own religious leaders’.
In an article titled ‘The loneliness of Thrace’ published in Paron newspaper dated 6 September 2021, Rodopi MP Evripidis Stylianidis of the New Democracy Party (NEA) claimed that the problems in Western Thrace stemmed from Turkish nationalism and organised initiatives aimed at defining the Muslim minority in the region and to use the Turkish community in Western Thrace as a political tool.
Citing the historical place of Western Thrace in his article, Stylianidis stated that the local community in Western Thrace represents a peaceful, creative model of co-existence consisting of different cultures, even though it has been disturbed from time to time by the interventions of foreigners. Stylianidis noted that Western Thrace constitutes a unique model of open democratic society that fully respects human and minority rights, religious freedoms and synthesises a modern intercultural identity that reflects the quality and depth of modern Greek democracy. At this point, Stylianidis indicated that the problems in the region were never related to religious freedom or cultural diversity, and that despite the efforts of international Islamic extremist movements, they are unable to convince the European Greek Muslim citizens living in Western Thrace. Stylianidis further explained that the problems in the region often stem mainly from Turkish nationalism and organised initiatives aimed at the political instrumentalisation of the Muslim minority, and that it is due to the indifference of central governments that remember Western Thrace before the election or when Turkey’s challenges to the minority and the Treaty of Lausanne, or the instrumentation of the migration problem in Evros, etc., arise.
Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made the following statement: ‘In his article for Paron, Stylianidis unfortunately repeats the allegations he has made in his past articles in other newspapers. It is true that there is a model of peace and co-existence in Western Thrace, but this model of co-existence is not a model built by modern Greece, but for centuries peoples have been living together in peace in this land. On the other hand, it is unrealistic to claim that the model of co-existence in the region reflects the quality and depth of modern Greek democracy. Indeed, the Turkish community in Western Thrace has been further isolated due to the lack of recognition of the ethnic Turkish identity in the region, which Stylianidis says is alone, the violation of the freedom to form associations, and the usurpation of the freedom to choose its own religious leaders. The state mentality that sees the Turkish community in Western Thrace as a threat to public order and the governments that implement it are responsible for this’.
