Greek police returns Dr. Mehmet Hasanoğlu his passport, saying “there was a mistake”

ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu: Arbitrary practice in the case of Dr. Hasanoğlu is indented to intimidate the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace

Dr. Mehmet Hasanoğlu, who belongs to the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and lives in Turkey, was released after the Greek police had made him wait for 24 hours at the border crossing point Pazarkule between Greece and Turkey and seized his passport and identity card on the ground that he had been deprived of his Greek citizenship in 2002 . Dr. Hasanoğlu was able to enter Turkey after the Greek police had told him that there had been a mistake in administrative procedure and returned him all his travel documents.

Dr. Hasanoğlu is from the village Büyük Derbent (Megalo Derio) in Western Thrace, Greece and lives in Bursa, Turkey. He got to know that he had been deprived of his Greek citizenship in 2002 as the Greek police seized his passport at the border crossing point Pazarkule on 28 June 2012. Whereas, Dr. Hasanoğlu had renewed his passport for five years in 2007, entered Greece many times and voted in the Greek general elections in 2007 and 2012.

Hasanoğlu gets his passport back after 24 hours

“The case of Dr. Mehmet Hasanoğlu is a recent example of arbitrary practices against the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece. On 28 June 2012, after the Greek police had made Dr. Hasanoğlu wait for 24 hours at the border crossing point on the ground that he was deprived of his Greek citizenship, he was permitted to enter Turkey. The Greek police told him that there had been a mistake in administrative procedure. Due to the fact that no official reason or documents were put forward for the claim of deprivation of citizenship of Dr. Hasanoğlu, the case is an evidence of this arbitrariness. Through such practices, it is tried to frighten the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace. However, the Turkish minority will continue to show a stable posture against such practices which remind the implementations of the intimidation policy in the past.” said Halit Habipoğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).

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