The observations of MIDAS Vice President Brezigar about fact-finding visit on Primorski Dnevnik newspaper

The Vice President of the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS) Bojan Brezigar who attended to the fact-finding visit to Western Thrace between 19-22 June organized by the partnership with the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe(ABTTF), Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (WTMUGA) and Friendship Equality Peace Party (FEP Party) wrote an article on 8 July 2014 about his observations on the visit on Primorski Dnevnik newspaper.

Bojan Brezigar who is the chief editor of Italy's Slovenian minority newspaper Primorski Dnevnik met with political representatives of Western Thrace Turkish Minority, Friendship, Equality, Peace (FEP) Party. FEP Party which gained 43 thousand votes in the European Parliament elections, but it did not send MEPs to the European Parliament due the 3 % electoral threshold.

Due to the 3 % electoral threshold in the national elections, Western Thrace Turkish Minority with a total population of 150.000 could not send deputies as independent or from its own minority party to Athens. Brezigar states that they had visited the general headquarters of FEP party in Komotini and noted that their visit as MIDAS and FUEN to the region in the last days of Greek EU Presidency was a show of support to Europe’s most vulnerable minority. He also quotes in his article that the Chairman of FEP Party, “We want to express our problems in the international arena, Europe must hear our voice”.

The article also talks about founder of FEP Party Dr. Sadik Ahmet`s life in detail who was arrested because of identifying Western Thrace Turkish Minority as “Turkish minority”, but not Muslim. Dr. Sadik Ahmet founded FEP Party in 1991, but with the death of Ahmet Sadik in 1995 his party remained inactive until 2009.

Brezigar notes that he asked the reason behind that FEP Party’s participation in the European elections after 15 years although it was known that the party had no chance to send any deputies to European Parliament. Brezigar adds that the Deputy Chairman of FEP Party Ahmet Ozanoglu replied in short: “Draw attention to our problems”.

FEP Party’s this electoral success and its re-entrance to the Greek political arena must be noted that though the party had no contact with other minorities in the country. According to Brezigar, the only power in the hands of the Turks is the Treaty of Lausanne and FEP Party is unwilling to take risks in relation to other minorities rights in fields of religion and education.

Brezigar indicates in his article that the Minority is effective in local politics, there are three Turkish mayors in Western Thrace and 8 out of 25 councilors of the Municipal Assembly of Komotini belong to Turkish Minority. Also, he indicates that Komotini Mayor George Petridis is a successful politician who knows that he should not exceed limits although he wants to say more. What is more, he quotes the words of Petridis, saying that “When I talk as a mayor you should always understand that we talk about Muslim Minority”. When bilingual road signs are asked to Petridis, he replied, “We can work on this matter and do more”. He also continued, “The present conditions are getting better, we hope that it will go even better in the future. We have to work hard for it”. Brezigar notes that Petridis is optimistic, but some questions and problems remain unanswered.