ABTTF President: “Do you really want Turkey to treat the Greeks in Istanbul, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada) the way you treat us?”
Speaking at the “THRACE- Past, Present and Future” event of the American Legion in Athens on 19 January 2022, Rodopi Province New Democracy MP Evripidis Stylianidis claimed that Greece has fulfilled its requirements by respecting the principle of reciprocity introduced by the Treaty of Lausanne signed between Turkey and Greece.
Intervening as a speaker along with Professor Konstantinos Lavdas from the Department of Europe and Comparative Policy at Panteio University in an event which was broadcast live online on Facebook under the moderation of a journalist named Athanasios Hupis, Stylianidis alleged that Greece fully respected the rights of the “Muslim minority” defined by the treaty, the two principles of reciprocity that formed the basis of the Treaty of Lausanne.
“Turkey should treat the Greeks in Istanbul, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada) in the same way as we treat Muslims in Thrace”, said Stylianidis. Claiming that the rights of the Turkish community in Western Thrace are guaranteed in Greece, Stylianidis also noted that “when we show democratic tolerance or we teach how democracy should be in practice”, some groups enjoy the right to express their opinions freely to the extent even that the Greek authorities are subjected to slander by them.
“Speaking at an event of the American Legion in Athens, Stylianidis again seeks to create a distorted, false reality about the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the exercise of the rights and freedoms of Turkish community in Western Thrace arising from the Treaty of Lausanne. Indeed, Stylianidis claimed that Greece continues to fulfil its obligations arising from the treaty in the field of education and religion by guaranteeing the principle of reciprocity and that comparatively, Turkey has not acted in accordance with the principle of reciprocity. I would like to ask Stylianidis: can Greeks in Istanbul, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada) identify themselves as Greeks? Do they have the right to choose and manage their own charitable foundations as a community? Do they still have the right to administer and manage their own schools, even though there are few of them as a community today? Well, can they determine the Patriarch themselves in the Fener Greek Patriarchate in the field of religion? For the Greeks of Istanbul, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada), the answer to all of these questions is ‘Yes’, on the other hand, we cannot say the same for the Turkish community in Western Thrace. We cannot express our Turkish identity, our associations bearing the word ‘Turkish’ are being banned. We have our own primary schools in education, but we are not autonomous due to state intervention, and many of the competencies of our boards have been taken away, it is impossible to say that we can manage our own schools. We cannot choose our muftis; the state appoints the muftis itself. But when it comes to words, Stylianidis claims they’re acting in accordance with reciprocity! I ask Mr. Stylianidis: Do you really want Turkey to treat the Greeks in Istanbul, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada) the way you treat us?”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
