ABTTF President: “ND or anyone else must first learn to respect the will of the people! Otherwise, political attitudes and discourses that marginalise and target the Turkish community in Western Thrace will harm our country’s democracy, as it is today.”
In an interview with Proto Thema on 3 June 2023, former Prime Minister of Greece and Chairman of the New Democracy Party (ND) Kyriakos Mitsotakis alleged that the election of Özgür Ferhat, a member of the Turkish community in Western Thrace who was elected in the prefecture of Rodopi which was the only prefecture where SYRIZA was the first party was a result of the intervention of the Consulate General of the Republic of Türkiye in Komotini.
In his interview with the newspaper, Mitsotakis added the following, accusing SYRIZA: ‘‘it is not possible for a foreign country to intervene openly in favour of certain candidates who are referred to the Turkish consulate and not the Greek constitutional legal order. Since it has been complicit in another state interfering in the internal affairs of Greece, this is an issue which should primarily concern the party which elected him’’.
Furthermore, Mitsotakis noted that, ‘‘Greek Muslims should feel that they have equal opportunities with their fellow Christians, and we are doing everything necessary to do so. But some want to see them as leverage to create trouble in Greece. For this reason, some parties should have been much more careful in their choices’’.
President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habip Oğlu made the following statement: “As a person who served as prime minister of this country, the interpretation made by Mitsotakis of the election result in Rodopi as the intervention of our motherland Türkiye in favour of Özgür Ferhat, ignoring the free will and right of free choice of individuals belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace is unacceptable. On 25 June, our country will go to elections again. It is quite ugly that Mitsotakis is conducting an accusatory, marginalising and targeting political campaign through Özgür Ferhat in Rodopi, the only place where it has not been painted to blue, the colour representing ND. Indeed, after the elections on 25 June, under the circumstances in which Özgür Ferhat will be in Parliament and that ND is the ruling party, Mitsotakis will be primarily responsible for making Özgür Ferhat a target by pretending that he was elected with the support of Türkiye. ND or anyone else must first learn to respect the will of the people! Otherwise, political attitudes and discourses that marginalise and target the Turkish community in Western Thrace will harm our country’s democracy, as it is today.”
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
