ABTTF President: “Former and current rulers of our country should be sincere and constructive in solving the issues of our community and should avoid populist rhetoric that does not benefit anyone.”
Speaking at the conference titled ‘‘The 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923-2023) and religious minorities’’ held by the Metropolis of Kastoria on 12 February 2023, Former President of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos indicated that all the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne are based on the institutional and political basis of the relations between Greece and Türkiye and that they cannot be changed in any way.
“Former president of our country Pavlopoulos repeated his well-known thesis and ignored the rights violations that the Turkish community in Western Thrace is subjected to. With the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, we were left to our country Greece and our rights were guaranteed. However, our country, which does not fulfil its obligations arising from the relevant treaty, has been usurping our rights for years. Our educational and religious autonomy has been largely taken from us by laws and practices contrary to the Treaty of Lausanne. Our democratically elected muftis are not recognised, our autonomous schools are closed. On the other hand, our country, which has persistently not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our associations for nearly 15 years despite all the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, continues to ignore international and European law. Pavlopoulos, who is also a well-known lawyer, for some reason does not mention this in his speech. Former and current rulers of our country should be sincere and constructive in solving the issues of our community and should avoid populist rhetoric that does not benefit anyone”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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