Western Thrace Turkish Minority’s problems on Danish Minority newspaper Flensborg Avis

In partnership with the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (WTMUGA) and Friendship Equality Peace Party (FEP Party), the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) and the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS), representatives of the Danish mi-nority in Germany and representatives of the German minority in Denmark made a visit to Western Thrace between 19-22 June. After the fact-finding visit, Jens Nygaard Thomsen, who was in the delegation of the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS), wrote his observations on 8 July 2014 in Germany’s Danish Minority newspaper Flens-borg Avis.

The minority can not identify itself even as “Turks”

Thomsen who provided wide information about Western Thrace’s history and Western Thrace Turkish Minority said that The Turkish minority in Greece could not define itself even as Turks and noted that the Vice President of FUEN Paul Dieter Küssner described this situation as shameful. He also said that the Turkish Minority Party, FEP Party which was the first party in European Par-liament Elections in the region could not use the word Turk in its name because it was still banned despite the decision of the European Court of the Human Rights. Thomsen quoted that FEP Party Chairman Mustafa Ali Çavuş saying, “We are a good-hearted minority, we do not want to push the boundaries. We only want equality, but it never happened”.

Thomsen also said that one of the biggest problems experienced in the field of education is that lllow-quality of Western Thrace Turkish Minority schools which in turn made the families send their children to the public schools. Thomsen noted that ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu’s statement that, “According to the number we should have 12 thousand students at the Minority schools but this number in reality is 5 thousand. Families send their children to public schools to give them a chance in their life.”

Thomsen indicates that the problem of school is the tip of the iceberg, the list extends further with the ban of the Turkish language in the state hospital of Komotini, the ending of a football match because the Minority children speak Turkish among themselves and the religious leaders who are called muftis are appointed by state. He also indicated that when the President of FUEN Hansen and others return to their country and transfer the problems of the Turkish Minority in Greece, local politicians do not often believe this situation.

Graduate minority youth does not see a future for themselves in Greece

Thomsen stated that many Turks do not see a future for themselves in Greece therefore mostly study at the universities in Turkey and stay there. Thomsen transferred that the Chairman of WTMUGA Mehmet Emin saying that they have 1040 university graduate members but many of them who continue to live in Western Thrace are unemployed. In addition, he stated that the liveli-hood largely based on tobacco production and the unemployed graduates are dependent on their families who earn very little money today from the tobacco production.

Thomsen also stated that the Greek Government confiscated the Turkish farmers’ fields for expro-priation but it did not pay any compensation or paid very little for them, and that about 4000 square kilometers of agricultural land confiscated in order to be built a university. He indicated that 500 families were affected by the expropriation in five villages and only five percent of the confiscated land is used today

The history of twenty mothers in Echinos

Thomsen also noted that two years ago in Echinos had a crisis because parents did not sent their children to Greek kindergartens under ten years of compulsory education law. Twenty mothers from Echinos did not send their children to Greek kindergartens in which the teaching language is only Greek. A year later, when they wanted to enroll them to minority elementary school, the children were not accepted because of not graduating Greek Nursery School. As a result, these mothers struggled for six months and compromised only signing to a written statement in which they did not send their children to the kindergarten because all of them were sick. However, the matter has not been resolved. He said that the Turks requested bilingual minority kindergarten schools but Athens did not response this request. Lastly Thomsen noted that there was a church built by the state at the entrance of Echinos village although the entire population is Muslim, and he underlined that in Echinos where the state had built a church that nobody uses, the Turkish mothers refused to send their children to the Greek kindergarten.