Party in Greece wins support of ethnic Turks in EP vote

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA (AA) - A political party in Greece has garnered the support of ethnic Turks living in the country in Sunday's European Parliament (EP) elections.

The Friendship, Equality and Peace Party (FEP) received overwhelming support in two provinces of Greece's Western Thrace region, where the Turkish minority mostly lives, according to unofficial results.

The party ranked first in Rhodopi and Xanthi provinces, receiving 38% and 25% of the votes respectively.

Western Thrace region of Greece is home to around 150,000 Muslim Turks.

The party also gathered more votes from elsewhere in Greece, especially in the two largest cities of Athens and Thessaloniki, compared to the 2014 EP elections.

In a written statement late on Monday, the party said the announcement of election results are "very slow" and it also complained that there were flaws and errors in some ballot boxes.

"We want to announce to our people that we have taken the necessary initiatives to recover the mentioned flaws and errors," the statement stressed.

It added that the party came first in Rhodopi and Xanthi and thanked its electorate.

The party was not able to elect an MEP due to relatively lower numbers of Turkish minority voters, however, it sees the European elections as an opportunity to make the voice of Turkish minority being heard.

Before the elections, leader of the party Cigdem Asafoglu had told Anadolu Agency that each vote her party received in the polls would send a strong message against the Greek government's policies toward the Turkish minority.

She had said that the votes cast for the FEP will be a proof of Turkish identity in Western Thrace.

Ozan Ahmetoglu, one of the party's EP hopefuls, had also said that problems of ethnic Turks of Western Thrace have been awaiting solution for years.