ABTTF President: “The government should take a real and sincere step to change the state policy that ignores, marginalizes and demonizes Turkish community on the 100th anniversary of Lausanne. The government should first implement immediately, with no excuses, the ECtHR judgments, which we have been waiting for 15 years to be implemented. The government should return Xanthi Turkish Union’s legal personality and approve the registration of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Prefecture of Rhodope and the Evros Minority Youth Association."
In an article published in the Athens-based newspaper Prin on July 24, 2023 on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, journalist Giorgos Mihailidis, in his article titled “Greek state against the Thrace Minority”, stated that the Greek state was constantly have suspicion of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, and that members of the minority were targeted and demonized.
Mihailidis stated that after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, the Greek state adopted a state policy that was basically oppressive against the Muslim population in Western Thrace, full of contradictions and fluctuations based on international situation with an attempt to instrumentalize the minority. He stated that from 1923 to the second half of the 1950s, the state used the term "Turk" for the minority population in the region in official correspondence and public life, but in 1957, with a secret decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the term “Turk” was restricted and removed over time.
Mihailidis stated that from the end of the 1950s, the minority began to be described as a “national danger” due to the impact of the crisis in Turkish-Greek relations, and noted that since then, state policy has been secretly coordinated by the Coordination Council of Thrace, which consists of local administrative agents, government officials, police and military. Mihailidis stated that the pressure on the minority population gradually intensified in order to limit the Turkish influence in the region and to force the minority members to migrate; and added that the term “Turkish minority” disappeared during the dictatorship.
Mihailidis stated that a semi-military control was established in the daily life of the minority population since the 1960s and stated that a semi-military control was established over the daily life of the minority population with the unofficial practices against the minority members. Mihailidis stated that the identity of a Muslim, not a Turk, was supported. Mihailidis noted that the extreme manifestation of the state’s anti-minority policy, as seen in the January 29 events, was in practice in the 1990s; and added thar the semi-military control ended only in 1996. However, Mihailidis noted that as a characteristic feature of the Greek state’s permanent anti-minority policy, the state suspicion of the minority population in Thrace constantly comes to the fore with the targeting and demonization of minority members.
Halit Habip Oglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe(ABTTF), made the following statement: “On the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, in which our destiny was determined, we see debates at the national level on how the state policy towards the Turkish community changed from “Turkish” to “Muslim” in the historical period. Similar views were expressed on the issue before and after the May 21 elections. Have experienced the cyrstal-clear example of the policy of demonizing, stigmatizing and targeting our community after the elections, this article which argues that this sitution is itself the state policy shows us it is now time to change! The government must take a real and sincere step to change the state policy that ignores, marginalizes and demonizes Turkish community in Western Thrace on the 100th anniversary of Lausanne! This country is ours, all ours! As I always say, we have been side by side with Costa and Maria for hundreds of years, state policy should be unifying, not divisive, and the government should demonstrate a strong political will for the solution of our current problems! The first step to be taken by the governments should be the implementation of ECtHR judgments, which we have been waiting for 15 years, immediately, and with no excuses, and thus return the legal personality of Xanthi Turkish Union and approve registration of Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Prefecture of Rhodope and Evros Minority Youth Association”.
