ABTTF President: “Since the 1970s, our country, which has imposed an identity on us by requiring the use of the word ‘Muslim’, does not allow us to define ourselves as ‘Turks’ in disregard of the most basic human rights and denies our Turkish identity. We have been living in this land as Turks for centuries and today we live as Turks. If our country really respected our rights, as Stylianidis claims, it would not have failed to execute the three judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our associations for the past 13 years.”
New Democracy Party (ND) MP Evripidis Stylianidis from Rodopi commented to the Komotini-based Radio Hronos and the Thessaloniki-based Real FM about the visit of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Yavuz Selim Kıran to Western Thrace on 5-6 May 2021.
Stylianidis told Radio Hronos that the minority in (Western) Thrace is a religious and Muslim minority, as Turkey acknowledged it when signing the Treaty of Lausanne, while the minority in Istanbul is the Greek minority, claiming that Turkey is working to “Turkify” the minority in (Western) Thrace. Stylianidis argued Greece respects minority rights and that an open and exemplary society has been built in (Western) Thrace where all religious rights are respected. In his statement he made at Real FM, Stylianidis said it is contradictory and funny that Turkey describes the Muslim minority in (Western) Thrace as “Turkish” and claimed the Turkish government is using the Muslim minority as a tool.
“MP Evripidis Stylianidis claims that according to the Treaty of Lausanne, there is a Muslim minority in Western Thrace and an ethnic Greek minority in Istanbul. However, he knows very well that the Treaty of Lausanne does not mention a Greek minority, but the non-Muslim minorities living in Turkey. With his statements, Stylianidis continues to repeat the official thesis of our country that ignores us. Since the 1970s, our country, which has imposed an identity on us by requiring the use of the word ‘Muslim’, does not allow us to define ourselves as ‘Turks’ in disregard of the most basic human rights and denies our Turkish identity. We have been living in this land as Turks for centuries and today we live as Turks. If our country really respected our rights, as Stylianidis claims, it would not have failed to execute the three judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our associations for the past 13 years”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.ekathimerini.com
