ABTTF President: “With the votes we casted for our FEP Party in the European Parliament (EP) elections, we made our party the first party in the prefectures of Rodopi and Xanthi, clearly showing that we are ‘Turks’ to everyone who denies our identity, like Syrigos, and proved our presence in our region. No matter how much Syrigos and others do not want to see it, the truth is obvious: We are Turks, and we exist in our country!”
In a conference he delivered on 17 June 2024, New Democracy (ND) Deputy of Athens Angelos Syrigos claimed that the Treaty of Lausanne signed between Türkiye and Greece in 1923 does not have any importance today because most of it refers to the agreements in 1923.
Referring to the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne regarding the protection of non-Muslim minorities in Türkiye and the Muslim minority in Greece, Syrigos claimed that the Treaty recognised an ethnic minority in Istanbul, the Greeks of Istanbul, and a religious minority in (Western) Thrace.
“Repeating the past statements of our country’s rulers and senior politicians, Syrigos made unrealistic claims by interpreting the Treaty of Lausanne in his own way and arbitrarily. With the votes we casted for our FEP Party in the 2024 European Parliament (EP) elections, we made our party the first party in the prefectures of Rodopi and Xanthi, clearly showing that we are ‘Turks’ to everyone who denied our identity and proving our presence in our region. The ruling party of our country, of which Syrigos is a member, designated an Albanian citizen from its list and gets him elected to the EP because he belongs to the Greek minority in Albania, but when it comes to us, who are Greek and EU citizens, our Turkish identity is denied. No matter how much Syrigos and others do not want to see it, the truth is obvious: We are Turks, and we exist in our country!”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
