'Greek premier ignores, whitewashes problems of Turkish minority'

By Ayhan Mehmet

GUMULCINE, Greece (AA) – During his two-day visit to a region of Greece with a large ethnic Turkish population, the premier ignored and tried to whitewash the longstanding problems of the Turkish minority there, said a party founded by the minority.

In his speech in Gumulcine, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis failed to concretely address any of the problems of the Turkish minority in Greece’s Western Thrace region, the Friendship, Equality and Peace Party (DEB) said in a statement on Saturday.

The DEB, a party popular with the Turkish minority community, said Mitsotakis avoided the facts and instead painted a false rosy picture of the situation of the Turkish minority.

It is not acceptable for him to try to mislead both the minority and the world public, it added.

The Turkish Muslim minority of Western Thrace has no problems living in harmony under the Greek and European flags, the party said.

“The minority has problems with not being rewarded for the great patience they have shown, ignorance of all its problems, and not being addressed. We, like the prime minister, invite Europeans to closely see the persecution in our region,” it added.

- History of discrimination, repression

Greece's Western Thrace region – in the country’s northeast, near the Turkish border – is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority numbering around 150,000.

The rights of the Turks of Western Thrace were guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but since then the situation has steadily deteriorated.

After a Greek junta came to power in 1967, the Turks of Western Thrace started to face harsher persecution and rights abuses by the Greek state, often in blatant violation of European court rulings.

The Turkish minority in Greece continues to face problems exercising its collective and civil rights and education rights, including Greek authorities banning the word “Turkish” in the names of associations, shuttering Turkish schools, and trying to block the Turkish community from electing its muftis.

In addition to violating longstanding treaties, these policies are also often in blatant violation of European Court of Human Rights rulings.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar