Halit Habip Oğlu: “The racist remarks of Velopoulos, the head of the far-right Greek Solution Party, targeted the Turkish community in Western Thrace in relation to the quarantine of the village of Echinos are not wise. We should avoid planting the seeds of hatred in society in the fight against this virus that threatens all of humanity regardless of geography, religion, ethnicity or social class”
The coronavirus, which affects Europe and the whole world, has also affected Greece. On 23 March 2020, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared a nationwide curfew to prevent the coronavirus. Despite all the measures which have been put in place, the number of cases in Greece as of 26 March rose to 821 and the number of people who lost their lives due to the virus to 23.
On 23 March 2020, the village of Echinos(Şahin) in Xanthi was quarantined as the first application in the country after a 72-year-old man from the Turkish community in Western Thrace died. After the quarantine of the village of Echinos, Kyriakos Velopoulos, head of the far-right Greek Solution Party, said on Twitter, ‘Echinos is in Quarantine!!! Ankara's spies live there, coming in and out of Turkey! Think about what it is in Erdoğan’s Turkey!’
Halit Habip Oğlu: “The racist remarks of Velopoulos, the head of the far-right Greek Solution Party, targeted the Turkish community in Western Thrace in relation to the quarantine of the village of Echinos are not wise. We should avoid planting the seeds of hatred in society in the fight against this virus that threatens all of humanity regardless of geography, religion, ethnicity or social class”
Halit Habip Oğlu, President of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) said, “The coronavirus, which has affected the whole world and caused numerous deaths, has been described as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. In other words, the coronavirus has spread not only to Greece and Turkey, but to the whole world. It does not distinguish between geography, religion, ethnicity or social class. In Greece, whether we are Turks or Greeks, Christians or Muslims, we are all in the same boat. If we don't fight the virus together, we'll all be affected by the bad consequences. It's not about you or me or a Turkish-Greek issue. It's the struggle of all mankind. We are not surprised by the racist statement made by the far right and fascist Greek Solution Party president after the quarantine of Echinos village, but we are of course very saddened that the Turkish community in Western Thrace is targeted even in such a time. I condemn Velopoulos for his racist rhetoric, the last thing we need as a society is the cultivation of the seeds of hatred at a time like this. We must unite as a country in the fight against the virus, and follow the measures taken by our government, and we must show a language which embraces and supports us all’.
