ABTTF President: ‘As members of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, we are Greek citizens of ethnic Turkish origin, just like Albanian citizens of ethnic Greek origin. So even though our existence is denied, whether they use the law to politicise it, the truth is clear. As citizens of this country, we live as Turks in our own country. That’s all there is to it!’
On 27 August 2021, Xronos wrote that the Court of Cassation which had rejected the appeal of the Xanthi Turkish Union on 29 June 2021, added that that the Court had indicated that the Xanthi Turkish Union wrongly and illegally described its members not as Greeks of Muslim origin but solely as Turks. Xronos says that the Court of Cassation’s decision shows clearly that those from the Muslim minority are Greek.
‘Areios Pagos: Muslim citizens are Greek, not Turkish’, the article says, adding that the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal of the Xanthi Turkish Union following the rejection by the Thrace Court of Appeals which had also previously rejected its appeal with the decision dated 96/2018. According to the article, the Court of Cassation, in its 8500-word reasoned decision, referred to the word ‘Turkish’ or similar words 62 times, and further underlined that Article 8 of the Statutes of the Xanthi Turkish Union are illegal. According to the Court of Cassation, Article 8 of the Statutes, which conveys the purpose of the Xanthi Turkish Union, is to promote ‘the state objectives of a foreign state (Turkey) rather than Greece’, and that the Xanthi Turkish Union incorrectly and illegally perceives its members as only Turks, not Greek Muslims.
Reacting to the article from Xronos, Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made the following statement: ‘It is not acceptable for the Court of Cassation’s decision of the Xanthi Turkish Union to mean that it is clear that the people expressed as the Muslim minority in Greece are Greek. It is a political, not legal interpretation, for the Court of Cassation to reject the appeal, indicating that Article 8 of th Statutes of the Xanthi Turkish Union incorrectly and illegally considers its members as Turks, not Greek Muslims. As members of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, we are Greek citizens of ethnic Turkish origin, just like Albanian citizens of ethnic Greek origin. So even though our existence is denied, whether they use the law to politicise it, the truth is clear. As citizens of this country, we live as Turks in our own country. That’s all there is to it!’
