Eleftheri Thraki: Lawyers demand removal of the Sharia in Thrace

On 9 March 2010, the newspaper Eleftheri Thraki published with its “Lawyers demand the removal of the Sharia in Thrace” titled news that lawyers, who had spoken at the event organized by the Human Rights Group of the Ecologist Greens Party, demanded the removal of the Sharia application in Thrace.

According to the news, President of the Xanthi Bar Association, Kostas Gunaris, lecturer at the Law Faculty of Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki Asst. Prof. Dr. Lina Papadopulu and lecturer in Law at the Democritus University of Thrace Yannis Ktistakis and Greens MEP Mihalis Tremopoulos attended the event as speakers. According to the news, President of the Xanthi Bar Association, Kostas Gunaris, stated the following: “ Family and inheritance law cases of 120.000 Muslim Greeks are injusticely decided by religious officials, namely by appointed Muftis.” Furthermore, Gunaris pointed out that the Sharia implementation by appointed Muftis would violate human rights and the principle of gender equality. Moreover, he added that with regard to the issue of bequest, an unequal situation would occur. In addition, in the news Yannis Kitsakis expresses his concerns that however decisions of the appointed Muftis have to be supervised by judges, the decisions are blindly approved by a single judged lower Court. Kitsakis also reminds that in 2007 the decision allowing a a minor virgin girl to marry a full age man was approved by the court.

With regard to the subject matter, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habipoğlu reminded that Greece had not been the only country implementing the Sharia law adding that also France and Great Britain were implementing the Sharia law with regard to religious minorities in the country. In addition, Halit Habipoğlu stated the following: “The canonical autonomy of Muftis in the field of family and inheritance law is related to the legal autonomy in religious fields. The autonomous structure in the religious field of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace has been determined by the 1881 Istanbul Agreement, the 1913 Athens Peace Accords and Protocols, the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, and by the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty. Therefore, Muftis in Western Thrace have the right to exclusive jurisdiction due to international agreements Thus, it cannot be justified to affirm that family and inheritance law cases are injusticely decided by Mufti. In addition, persons authorized in the fields of family and inheritance law are not elected, but state appointed Muftis. Therefore, due to the fact that appointed Muftis are civil servants, the addressee of the concerns about the issue of the 2007 marriage decision of the single judged Lower Court is the (Greek) state itself. In his book entitled “The Legal Autonomy of the Turkish Minority in Greece”, Dr. Turgay Cin emphasizes that none of the extract of the decisions by Mufti can be queried by any other judicial bodies in terms of legal liability and legal status. He also points out that the content of the Mufti decisions can only be checked by the Chief Mufti”.