ABTTF President: “Our country does not allow our associations bearing the word ‘‘Turkish’’, closes our autonomous primary schools, does not recognise our elected muftis. Is this what it means to be a European country with a modern democracy? Is this to pursue a modern European minority policy?”
In its statement on 8 December 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that our country is a European country with a modern democracy and follows a consistent minority policy that supports the welfare of the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
‘‘Our country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again made false claims and alleged that our country is following policies in favour of our community. However, the facts go opposite to the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! Our country, which denies our ‘Turkish’ identity and does not allow us to define ourselves as ‘Turkish’, has persistently not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in favour of our associations for the past 15 years. In the last 27 years, the number of our autonomous primary schools has decreased from 231 to 99 due to the closures. With the provision of the former Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law, which was in effect from 1955 to 1998, approximately 60 thousand Western Thrace Turks were stripped of their citizenship. All the bilingual schools of the Turkish community in Rhodes, Kos and the Dodecanese were closed and the mufti institution in the islands was completely abolished. The administrative committees of the foundations belonging to the Turkish community in both Western Thrace and the islands are appointed by the state. Is this what it means to be a European country with a modern democracy? Is this to pursue a modern European minority policy?”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
