Election of Ahmet Hacıosman caused discomfort amongst some people

Election of Ahmet Hacıosman as Rodop Deputy Governor with 16 thousand votes caused discomfort amongst some people. Rodop – Evros demands the renewal of the elections.

Ahmet Haciosman, chairman of Peace and Equality Party (DEB), was elected as Rodop Deputy Governor with 16 thousand votes at the general elections, held on 15 October. However, that success caused discomfort amongst some people and they demand the renewal of the elections revealing that Ahmet Haciosman was chaplin.

Halit Habipoglu made a statement about the subject and he said “I would like to congrulate Western Thrace Turkish Minority members, they were very sensitive and conscious to use their voting right. However, in Greece success of our minority always causes concern among the Greek institutions. Request of election renewal is a sign of that concern. Campaigns aganist Western Thrace Turkish Minority members do not make any good to Greece. We should work together to solve the problems.“

According to the Article 21, paragraph 1 of the Governship&City Council Candidate Law, judges, members of the army, chaplins can not be candidate at the elections. Halit Habipoglu revealed that for some time, Haciosman worked as a chaplin at Tekke Mosque and after that he worked as a member of the army after that post at Tekke Mosque. Haciosman has been a member of the executive committee of DEB. Habipoglu continued as „Ahmet Haciosman was also Rodop Deputy Governor before. I can not understand why such a conflict suddenly appeared after he was elected with a record high level of votes.“

With the new election area regulations, the possibility of electing a Turkish Governor is completely eliminated, according to statements of Halit Habipoglu and he continued as „Actually, it is possible to elect a Turkish governor from the election area of Rodop when we consider the population of Turkish minority in Rodop. However, with the new „extended governorship regulation“ Turkish voters became minority in their habitats and their right to elect their governor is eliminated completely. In addition to that, they do not let our elected minority governor to work and satisfy his duties.“

After the local elections, 11 Turkish took seat in the Rodop City Council. 9 of them are from PASOK while 2 are from YDP.