Meeting with Dimitrios Kotsakis, Mayor of Gümülcine (Komotini)

ABTTF Delegation visited Dimitrios, Mayor of Gümülcine (Komotini) and Ali Ali, Deputy Mayor responsible for minority villages.

Halit Habipoğlu, chairman of ABTTF, visited Municipality of Gümülcine for the first time after the new governance came into office. Habipoğlu met Ali Ali, Deputy Mayor responsible for minority villages and gave information on ABTTF, as well as other Western Thrace associations in Europe.

Following the meeting with Ali Ali, Habipoğlu met Kotsakis and congratulated him for his new post on the behalf of ABTTF and Western Thrace Turkish minority members in Europe.

Habipoğlu stated that ABTTF represented Western Thrace Turkish minority members of 25 thousand in all Europe, being a member of UN ECOSOC and FUEN, having a press unit that issues Newsletters and other researches in 4 languages, putting the problems of Western Thrace Turkish minority members on the international community agenda and trying to find ways to establish dialogue with the Greek government.

Habipoğlu expressed their pleasure to Kotsakis as himself and Municipality of Gümülcine’s interested for the problems of minorities, yet not getting the same attention from Greek government. Habipoğlu requested Kotsakis to give effort and convince Greek government to establish dialogue with the minorities, underlining the fact that such an effort would be beneficial for both sides.


Kotsakis revealed that Municipality of Gümülcine saw minority and majority as members of a family, implementing a policy under that framework. Kotsakis stated that New Democracy governance valued minority and tried to eliminate the impacts of previous pressures on the minority members under the guidance of democracy and equality.

Upon the support request of Habipoğlu for the summer camp project for Western Thrace minority children living in Germany, Kotsakis stated that Municipality of Gümülcine would do their best to support the project and ABTTF in all means, with pleasure.