Mosque of Okcular Village again set on fire

On 2 September 2009, the Mosque of Okcular Village, Xanthi, was again set on fire. According to the news of daily Birlik, police officers, who inspected the crime scene, ascertained the occurrence as an incendiary action. Unidentified person or persons spoiled gasoline on the mosque carpets, after removing the iron railings and breaking a window to entry the mosque. As a result of the incendiary action, carpets of the mosque completely burned down and the air conditioner lapsed. Furthermore, chandelier, wood coatings, pulpit, altar and the Koran of the mosque were also damaged, according to the news of Rodop Rüzgarı. On 3 September, the religious official, entrusted with opening the mosque for the Taravish pray, noticed the incendiary action, which took place during the night of the 2nd September. It is emphasized that the fire luckily extinguished by itself without transmitting to plants placed in the mosque.

Today, only seven Turkish families are living in the village of Okcular (located on the west border of Western Thrace) next to a Christian majority. During the general elections of 2004, the mosque was set on fire for the first time on the 7 March and as a result completely burned down. The second incendiary action took place in 2007, and now on the day of the early election announcement of Greece for the 4th of October 2009, the mosque became a place of vandalism again.

With regard to the incendiary action, Halit Habipoglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) stated that “We strongly condemn the attacks on the Okcular Mosque and demand the responsible certainly to be caught and punished for their action of crime. The attacks on mosques, functioning as places of worship, deeply afflict and worry the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace. The increasing amount of attacks on members of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace or their representing institutions creates nervousness and fear and the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace should understand the early elections as an opportunity to present its voting power as a response to the happenings.”