ABTTF President: “The argument that Greece sets an example with a democratic and humanist attitude towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace shows how deep the gap between discourse and practice is. Indeed, this is not true under any circumstances!’’
In the article of Lieutenant General Ioannis Stamoulis on the website Limenikanea dated 6 June 2023, titled ‘‘About the Muslim Minority in Western Thrace - the exemplary attitude of our democratic and humanist homeland against Turkish revisionism’’, he wrote that following elections in the motherland of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, Türkiye, a revisionist policy has been adopted and that one should be careful with respect to the issues pertaining to Thrace.
With the expression ‘‘Muslims in Western Thrace’’, Stamoulis argued that the Turkish community in Western Thrace is a ‘‘pure religious minority’’ that has all the rights of a Greek citizen and Greek citizenship according to the Greek Constitution, European law and international law. Furthermore, Stamoulis claimed that Greece set an example with a democratic and humanistic approach towards the Western Thrace Turks.
President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habip Oğlu made the following statement: “The argument made by Stamoulis that Greece sets an example with a democratic and humanist attitude towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace shows how deep the gap between discourse and practice is. Indeed, this is not true under any circumstances! Unfortunately, this discourse has nothing to do with the truth from afar! You ask why? Let me tell you...The Xanthi Turkish Union, which was established in 1927 was closed in 1986. Despite the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, its legal personality has not been restored for the past 15 years! Just yesterday, the Committee of Ministers once again warned our country, which has not executed the judgments of the European Court for the past 15 years, with respect to our three associations in the Bekir-Ousta group of cases. On the other hand, our Western Thrace Fenerbahçe Association was first established, and then a closure case was filed. In the political arena, Turkish deputies belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace are targeted. In fact, Xanthi deputy Hüseyin Zeybek was threatened with death on live television. The 21 May elections also showed how problematic the democratic maturity is in the political arena in our country. Many people from the fields of politics and religion did not respect the election results in Rodopi, even Mitsotakis, the former Prime Minister of our country! What was said after the election results in our region clearly showed that our country does not have a democratic and humanist attitude towards our community, as Stamoulis claims. On the contrary, our community is marginalised at every opportunity and made a target with a variety of accusations’’.
