ABTTF President: “We no longer want to hear empty words from our Prime Minister that distorts the facts, and we want our usurped rights to be restored immediately and the principle of equality before the law to be implemented in practice.”
Our country Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also referred to the Turkish community in Western Thrace while discussing the programme of the new government in Parliament.
In his speech, Mitsotakis indicated that equal rights and law are important values and that they should have a full content and noted the following: “Our Greek Muslim citizens should feel that they have the same opportunities as our Christian citizens in practice. And they should know that they don’t need foreign protectors who want to divide, not unite, with their interference.”
“Prime Minister Mitsotakis continues to deny our identity, describing us as ‘‘Greek Muslims’’ in his speech in Parliament. Although Mitsotakis persistently denies the existence of our community, as the results of the last general elections show, the truth is obvious. Despite the marginalising and stigmatising hate speech in politics and the mainstream media before the elections, our community protected its identity by electing Turkish candidates in the prefectures of Rodopi and Xanthi and sent a clear message to the government: ‘‘We are Turks who have lived in these lands for centuries, and we are loyal citizens with our Turkish identity’’. On the other hand, as I have said many times before, it is only possible for our community to solve its issues only if our country establishes a direct dialogue with us! However, Mitsotakis again claims that we have the same opportunities as the majority by manipulating the facts and creating perceptions. However, what happens in practice is the opposite! Our educational and religious autonomy, which are guaranteed by the treaties, have been usurped by various laws and practices over the years. Our country does not even respect our children’s right to education in their mother tongue by not allowing bilingual minority kindergartens in our region. Our country, which has not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our three associations for the past 15 years, continues to violate our freedom of association and ignores international law. We no longer want to hear empty words from our Prime Minister that distorts the facts, and we want our usurped rights to be restored immediately and the principle of equality before the law to be implemented in practice”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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