ABTTF President: “We demand that all investment and development incentives to be provided to Western Thrace should be distributed in a fair and balanced way between the Turkish community and majority-owned companies. As we have emphasised in our concrete proposals submitted to the cross-party Commission for the Development of Thrace as ABTTF, the Turkish community should be taken into account at every step to ensure the economic development of the region.”
According to the New Development Law adopted by the Greek Parliament on 2 February 2022, investment incentives are specifically set for each province in Western Thrace. Unlike all development laws to date, the new law addresses Western Thrace for the first time on the basis of provinces in the region, not as a whole.
Under the relevant law, the government envisions a 60 percent subsidy for the province of Evros and 30 percent for the provinces of Rodopi and Xanthi.
“With the New Development Law, different incentive rates were determined for the provinces of Western Thrace for the first time in our country. The law stipulates that the province of Rodopi, where the Turkish community in Western Thrace makes up the majority of its population, and the province of Xanthi, which accounts for almost half of its population, will receive less grant support than the province of Evros. At this point, we demand that all investment and development incentives to be provided to Western Thrace should be distributed in a fair and balanced way between the Turkish community and majority-owned companies. As we have emphasised in our concrete proposals submitted to the cross-party Commission for the Development of Thrace as ABTTF, the Turkish community should be taken into account at every step taken by the government to ensure the economic development of the region. A situation that is opposite to this would constitute a new example of the discrimination that the Turkish community has suffered for years in the political, social and economic spheres, and will not make it possible to achieve a balanced development in Western Thrace”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
