ABTTF President: “Just as our country protects the rights of the Greek minority in neighbouring Albania at both European and international levels, our motherland is doing the same for our community, protecting us and standing up for us.”
Chair of the PASOK- KINAL Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Committee Dimitris Mantzos responded to the statements made by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye Hakan Fidan at the 51st Session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers held in Istanbul regarding the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the Turks of the Dodecanese Islands.
In a written statement dated 21 June 2025, Mantzos claimed that the use of the term ‘‘Turkish minority’’ in (Western) Thrace and the Dodecanese Islands by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye was not only a new and serious verbal provocation but also an official confirmation of Türkiye’s illegal claims in the region.
Mantzos claimed that Türkiye continues to be a revisionist power that defies international law and international agreements, noting that Greece must clearly expose such provocations at the international and European levels at every opportunity.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye Hakan Fidan, in his opening speech at the 51st Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers indicated that the Muslim Turkish minority in Western Thrace and the Turkish population in the Dodecanese Islands in Greece are facing serious violations that prevent them from enjoying even the most basic rights and freedoms, and that the OIC’s interest in this issue is of critical importance in ensuring that the Greek authorities respect the national identity, religious education and cultural rights of the Muslim Turkish minority.
‘‘We return Mantzos’ “so-called” statement regarding the Turkish identity of our community to him. Mantzos has once again made clear his discomfort with our motherland’s efforts to address the human rights violations our community has faced by raising these issues within democratic norms on every international platform, as it has done in the recent past. With his unfounded and baseless claims in his written statement, Mantzos is also harming the positive dialogue process between our country and our motherland. Just as our country stands by the Greek minority in neighbouring Albania and protects their rights at both European and international levels, our motherland is doing the same for our community, as it should. Moreover, as the Chair of his party’s Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Committee, it is inconceivable that Mantzos is unaware that our country has deliberately failed to execute the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which confirm the ethnic Turkish identity of our community, for over 17 years. We urge Mantzos and other leading politicians in our country to set aside their cheap political statements regarding our community and take responsibility for bringing an immediate end to the human rights violations our community is facing in our country’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
