ABTTF President: “Our country claims that our community has full equality and equal rights as Greek citizens, but for 17 years it has persistently failed to execute the ECtHR judgments regarding our associations, including the Xanthi Turkish Union, and flagrantly violates our freedom of association. We request our country to immediately put an end to its policy that denies the ethnic Turkish identity of our community and distorts the facts about our community, and to establish a direct and good faith dialogue with us for a long-lasting solution to our problems.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece issued a written statement to a social media post made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye on 14 April 2025 on the occasion of the 98th anniversary of the establishment of the Xanthi Turkish Union (ITB).
In the statement, it was indicated that the Treaty of Lausanne clearly defines the minority in (Western) Thrace as a religious minority, not an ethnic minority, and it was claimed that the Greek state fully respects the religious beliefs and cultural characteristics of the Muslim minority in (Western) Thrace and provides full equality and equal rights before the law to Greek citizens belonging to the minority.
In a post on its official social media account, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye congratulated the 98th anniversary of the establishment of ITB and expressed its support for the just efforts and honourable struggle of ITB to use its own name in accordance with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
“Our country, which insistently avoids establishing a direct dialogue mechanism with our community, has continued to distort the facts by interpreting the Treaty of Lausanne according to itself. As much as Christians living in Istanbul, Gökçeada and Bozcaada are of Greek origin, we who have been living in Western Thrace for centuries are just as much Turks! On the one hand, our motherland allows the opening of a private Greek primary school for only 3 children in Gökçeada in 2013, and on the other hand, our country is disturbed even by the celebration of the anniversary of the establishment of the oldest non-governmental organisation of our community, which was dissolved due to the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name. Our country claims that our community has full equality and equal rights as Greek citizens, but for 17 years it has persistently failed to execute the ECtHR judgments regarding our associations, including the Xanthi Turkish Union, and flagrantly violates our freedom of association. We request our country to immediately put an end to its policy that denies the ethnic Turkish identity of our community and distorts the facts about our community, and to establish a direct and good faith dialogue with us for a long-lasting solution to our problems”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
