Problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace conveyed to the delegation from Finland

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) paid a study visit to Thessaloniki on 14 October 2014. The delegation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace consisting of the ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu, ABTTF Director K. Engin Soyyılmaz, the Friendship, Equality Peace (FEP) Party President Mustafa Ali Çavuş and FEP Party Working Group of International Affairs member Ali Ali Remzioğlu met with representatives of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland who were paying a study visit to Greece regarding the minority issues.

Greece should put an end to “other” oriented policy over minority

During the meeting held with the Finnish delegation under the chairmanship of Johan Häggman who served until recently as information and communication officer and team coordinator for multilingualism events at the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation, which consisted of eight people in total that is to say, the representatives of the think tank “Magma” which is a think tank of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland and the Swedish Assembly of Finland “Folktinget” plus journalists from the Finnish state radio and television “YLE” and the Finnish news agency “FNB-SPT”, it was discussed in detail the fundamental and current problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, in particular those related to the educational and religious autonomy of the Minority

At the meeting, it was expressed the rights of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace have been defined by the Lausanne Peace Treaty which was signed in 1923 between Greece and Turkey and according to the Treaty, it is recognized an autonomous status to the Minority in the fields of religion and education, but today, it came to the point of disappearance of the structure actually due to the various laws and practices starting from 1967 in Greece, and one of the latest examples of this includes “240 Imams Law” which gives opportunity to the appointed religious officials to work at the mosques and in the public schools in Western Thrace.

With regard to the political representation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, it was expressed a new law was adopted in 1990 in Greece and according to it, the application of 3% threshold not only for political parties but also for independent candidates across the country had started and due to the electoral threshold, the Minority, which reflects 1.5% of Greece’s total population, it became impossible to choose independent MPs to Greek Parliament. It was also said that founded in 1991, the FEP Party experienced its first election excitement after participating for the first time in its history in European Parliament (EP) elections in Greece on 25 May 2014 but it could not send any deputies to the European Parliament although it ranked first party and received majority of votes in the provinces of Rodopi and Xanthi due to the 3% electoral threshold applied also to the EP elections.

During the meeting, it was also conveyed to the Finnish delegation, on the basis of the problems and discrimination suffered by the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace lies the Greece’s perception of minority as “other” and internal threat. Lastly, it was noted the need of Greece to take direct interlocutors and engage in constructive dialogue to make much easier to solve the problems of Minority based on good faith which whom the status and minority rights guaranteed by treaties.