ABTTF President: “We constitute the majority of the population in the prefecture of Rodopi, naturally the Turkish candidate gets the most votes. It is quite normal for the Greek candidate to get the second most votes and a candidate from us to get the third most votes. Our community, of its own free will, went to the polls on 21 May and cast its vote to Turkish candidates from Rodopi and Xanthi.”
In the general elections held in our country Greece, on Sunday 21 May 2023, the majority press reported that four Western Thrace Turks from Rodopi and Xanthi were elected as deputies and entered the Greek Parliament, and that one Turk received the most votes in the prefecture of Rodopi and reports which target our community in particular and explanations in that respect are continuing.
In his statement evaluating the election results, New Democracy Party (NDP) Rodopi Deputy Evripidis Stylianidis claimed that the success of SYRIZA in the prefecture of Rodopi in the last general elections was mainly the result of the intervention of the Turkish Consulate in Komotini to the internal affairs of the country by manipulating the minority votes, and that it was due to foreign interventions.
President of SYRIZA Rodopi Provincian Organisation Eleni Laftçi shared on her personal Facebook account that the Turkish Consulate in Komotini managed to intervene in the political issues in Rodopi and that she claimed that the success of SYRIZA candidate Özgür Ferhat, who was elected MP from Rodopi, has nothing to do with the progressive power or the left.
In the news of the Xronos newspaper dated 22.05.2023, it was noted that PASOK-KINAL candidate from Rodopi Sibel Mustafaoğlu, received approximately 2,500 votes in the general elections, but could not even get 500 votes in the 2019 municipal elections, and that the relationship between Mustafaoğlu and Turkish Consulate or Consular mechanisms should be investigated.
In a statement about the election results in Rodopi, Metropolitan of Alexandroupoli Anthimos Koukouridis claimed that the religious identity of the citizens was instrumentalised by foreign powers and centres in order to intervene in the political mechanism, referring to the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
In the news report titled “SYRIZA’s apology to the minority in Xanthi and Rodopi” published on the website Liberal.gr on 25.05.2023, SYRIZA repeated its mistake of handing over the Muslim minority to the manipulation of the Turkish Consulate in Komotini, thus it was alleged that it put the small party plans above national interests.
“It is really sad to see that even the results of the democratic elections are not respected in our country when we read the news and statements that directly target our community after the 21 May general elections. Especially in the prefecture of Rodopi, the record votes received by SYRIZA candidate Özgür Ferhat are highlighted, and it is claimed that this is the result of external forces directing our community. However, this is deliberately ignored: we constitute the majority of the population in the prefecture of Rodopi and naturally a Turkish candidate gets the most votes. It is quite normal for the Greek candidate to get the second most votes and a candidate from us to get the third most votes. Our community, of its own free will, went to the polls on 21 May and cast its vote to Turkish candidates from Rodopi and Xanthi. Moreover, in the early general elections held in September 2015, 3 of the 3 deputies elected to the Greek Parliament from the prefecture of Rodopi were Turkish. Again in October 1993, before the requirement for independent candidates to receive 3% of the votes nationwide in order to be elected as a member of parliament, we elected our independent deputies as a community and sent them to the Greek Parliament. Therefore, our community, which is ignored in our country, cast its votes to Turkish candidates in every election, reminding our country’s rulers and political parties of its existence and power in the most democratic way, and saying that ‘‘we are here with our Turkish identity”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
