ABTTF President: ‘I would like to say to our metropolitan bishops the following: In Turkey, where we can compare with our muftis in Western Thrace on the basis of reciprocity, the Patriarch of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate should not be elected by the Synod Assembly but appointed by the state! That’s what I’m going to ask from our motherland Turkey. Will our metropolitan bishops agree to this?’
The Metropolitan Bishops of Xanthi, Maronia-Komotini, Alexandroupolis and Didymoteicho wrote a letter to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Speaker of the Greek Parliament Konstandinos Tasoulas expressing their opposition to a possible arrangement to elect muftis in Western Thrace by a select committee, Estia newspaper reported on 22 September 2021.
According to the news report from Estia and as regards the information which was transferred to the metropolitan bishops by the deputies that are members of the Commission for the development of Thrace and other various centres, it is said that in the report which has been prepared by the Commission for the development of Thrace which had been set up in the Parliament and headed by Commission for the development of Thrace President Dora Bakoyannis and is about to be presented to Mitsotakis that the metropolitans wrote a four-page letter expressing their opposition to the possible arrangement, as there would be a proposal for the implementation of the regulation, which stipulates that the muftis in Western Thrace should be chosen by a select committee.
Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made the following statement: ‘Do the metropolitan bishops of our region really know what they want in their letter to Prime Minister Mitsotakis and the Speaker of the Parliament? The rights of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and of the Greek Orthodox community in Istanbul, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada), which were both excluded from the mandatory exchange of population between the two countries, were regulated by the Treaty of Lausanne within the framework of the principle of reciprocity. Our country does not recognise our ethnic Turkish identity by referring to Lausanne, it uses the term ‘Muslim minority in Thrace’ for us. As I stated in our letter to the international authorities in September, our motherland Turkey has taken positive steps towards the Greek Orthodox minority, especially in recent years, while our rights and freedoms in our country have been taken away from us in disregard of Lausanne. Now our metropolitan bishops oppose a possible arrangement to elect our muftis, so I would like to say to our metropolitan bishops the following: In Turkey, where we can compare with our muftis in Western Thrace on the basis of reciprocity, the Patriarch of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate should not be elected by the Synod Assembly but should therefore be appointed by the state! That’s what I’m going to ask from our motherland Turkey. Will our metropolitan bishops agree to this?’
