Minister of the Interior Kastanidis is investigating the restoration of citizenship for the Thessalonica Jews

Greek Minister of the Interior, Decentralization and E-government Haris Kastanidis called for an investigation for the opportunity of restoring the citizenship of Thessalonica Jews and their relatives with blood ties. According to the In.gr website a law on reorganizing residence permits with improved security conditions to foreign citizens and local administration has been recently discussed. Minister Kastanidis, called for an investigation during the meetings, on the possibility of restoring of the citizenship of Greek Citizen Jews and their relatives with blood ties who ran away from the holocaust to Israel. Kastanidis stated that the citizenship application of the Thessalonica Jews, born before 1945 with a population of 400 including families, is an ‘honour for Greece’ and these restorations should be made with no pre-conditions otherwise it would constitute a grave mistake.

The Jewish population in Thessalonica, living there for nearly 20 centuries, was around 80 thousand during 1900. After Thessalonica went under Greek rule from the Ottoman Empire, migrations began from the region towards other countries. Upon commencing of the Second World War, the Jewish population in the city decreased by half. On 9 April 1941, the Germans entered Thessalonica and the first thing they did was to send away Jewish men to labour camps. In 1943, the Germans decided on the ‘Final Solution’ and the holocaust was executed in Thessalonica as it was in the rest of Europe following this decision. During the period 14 March - 7 August 1943, 43.880 Thessalonica Jews were sent to Auschwitz and Birkenau via 19 train convoys. Only very few managed to escape and hid in neighbouring villages and Athens, only to survive. After the war, some Thessalonica Jews were able to return to their city, the ones who did not were deprived of their citizenship.

President Habipoğlu: “Thousands of Western Thrace Turks seek the restoration of their citizenship”

President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turk in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habipoğlu issued a statement saying “We believe the step taken by the Minister to look in to the possibility of restoring the citizenship of the Thessalonica Jews is a very positive one. However, we also wish that he would show the same sensitivity towards the Western Thrace Turks who were deprived of their citizenships. There are around 60 thousand Western Thrace Turks who were deprived of their citizenship due to the execution of Former Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code. These people were also deprived of all their social rights along with their citizenship. Even today, there are those who live in Greece as “stateless” persons and there have been those who had to take up citizenships of other countries. These people want to regain their citizenship; they want their citizenship to be restored. The government should take into consideration this problem of the Western Thrace Turks, and should take a political step in order to achieve a judicial solution.”