ABTTF President: “While our autonomous primary schools in Western Thrace are closed one by one and their numbers are decreasing every year, in our motherland, only in Gökçeada, 4 primary schools for children belonging to the Greek Orthodox minority were opened in 2013, and a secondary school and high school were opened in 2015.”
Former President of our country Greece, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, delivered a speech titled ‘‘The Treaty of Lausanne and the Issue of Minorities’’ at an event in Corinth on 8 September 2023.
In his speech, he indicated that the most important achievement of former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos was that the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne stipulate that the religion of the minority in Greece is Muslim and that the minority in Türkiye is national, that is, Greek. Furthermore, Pavlopoulos noted that positive steps have been taken with respect to the minorities living in Greece, and that they expect the same constructive attitude for their compatriots living in Türkiye.
“Former president of our country Pavlopoulos is making unrealistic claims by interpreting the Treaty of Lausanne in his own way. As our former president, who is a lawyer, knows very well, the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne only refer to the minorities in our motherland as ‘‘non-Muslim minorities’’. We would like to remind our former president of this fact once again. On the other hand, our former president claims that positive steps have been taken for minorities in our country. The facts are just the opposite! Today, the educational and religious autonomy of our community, guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne, has been largely taken away from us. While our autonomous primary schools in Western Thrace are closed one by one and their numbers are decreasing every year, in our motherland, only in Gökçeada, 4 primary schools for children belonging to the Greek Orthodox minority were opened in 2013, and a secondary school and high school were opened in 2015. The number of students studying in these schools has increased over the years. Today, there are 21 students in the Greek primary school and 35 students in the secondary and high school. Moreover, our country has not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our three associations for the past 15 years and continues to disregard international law. We ask the former and current rulers of our country not to make populist statements that clearly distort the facts and to act responsibly’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
