Western Thrace Turkish Minority won two seats at the general elections

Western Thrace Turkish minority won two seats at the Parliament, Ahmet Haciosman (PASOK) from Gumulcine (Komontini) and Cetin Mandaci (PASOK) from Iskece (Xanthi) at the general elections held in Greece on 16 September.

New Democracy Party (ND), the governing party, got 41.84% of the votes and won 152 seats in the 300-seat Parliament, again retaining a slim majority in parliament. Meanwhile, PASOK won 102 seats with 38.10% share of the votes. Other then two main parties, Communist Party (KKE) won 8.14% of the vote and 22 seats, while Radical Left Coalition (Syriza),won 5.03% and 14 seats. The fifth party in the Parliament is Popular Orthodox Alarm with (LAOS) 3.79% of the votes, being represented by 10 PMs.

Results of the election showed that two PMs from Western Thrace Turkish minority were elected. However, in Gumulcine (Komotini) two candidates lost their chance to become MPs narrowly. Meanwhile, Ahmet Haciosman, PASOK candidate from Gumulcine (Komotini) got 14.873 votes, being the PASOK MP with highest number of votes. Ilhan Ahmet, ND candidate could not be elected although he achieved 14.188 votes. In Gumulcine (Komotini), PASOK and New Democracy Party (ND) got 36.665 and 36.540 votes, respectively. As PASOK was the winning party in Gumulcine (Komotini), the party will be represented by two MPs in the Parliament while one MP from NP will enter the Parliament.

As a result, Evripidis Stilianidis , Greek candidate of NP, was elected as PASOK Gumulcine (Komotini) MP and Ilhan Ahmet, due to a very small vote difference of 125, could not be elected.

Meanwhile, we see an increasing trend in the votes for Western Thrace Turkish minority candidates in Iskece (Xanthi). Western Thrace Turkish minority members who were not represented in the Parliament for two terms, succeeded to elect Cetin Mandaci, by 15.211 votes.

It is success to increase minority MPs in the Parliament, yet…

Western Thrace Turkish minority members were represented in the Parliament during the previous term only by one MP and when we compare the current election success of sending two minority MPs to the Parliament, we should admit that it is a worth-mentioning success for the minority. However, on the other hand, it is a big pity that third minority MP missed being MP with 165 votes.

Halit Habipoglu, chairman of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), underlined the same issue. “First to say, it is a real success for our minority to send two minority MPs to the Parliament. Additionally, I would like to wish success to our friends and express my belief in their effort to protect the rights of our minority at the Parliament. Meanwhile, I would like to express my grief for İlhan Ahmet as he could not be elected. We were expecting to achieve three MPs but Stilianidis, NP candidate of majority, lost 5000 votes which caused NP to be the second party in and we could not send Ilhan Ahmet to the Parliament as our third MP.” said Habipoglu.

Habipoglu stated that it was a great success to increase votes in Iskece (Xanthi), sending one MP to the Parliament. Habipoglu underlined the support of Ahmet Mete, elected Mufti of Iskece (Xanth), in that success. However, Habipoglu stated that as long as the 3% threshold was not abolished, the real representation of the minority would not be possible while all the MPs had to represent the view of their party. Meanwhile, vote of confidence for the new government will be held on 23 September.