SYRIZA’s promise for “Change”!

Dear Western Thrace Turks,

We had a general election in our country just a few days ago following an unsuccessful presidential elections held on 29 December 2014. After a short period of election campaigns, Greek people went to ballot boxes on 25 January 2015. 18 candidates from Western Thrace Turks also took part in the election from different political parties. The results were in line with expectations and the Coalition of Radical Left (SYRIZA) came to the power with an overwhelming vote rate. As differently from previous traditional tendencies, the voters dismissed to vote for PASOK and New Democracy in this election. They voted for SYRIZA instead and brought it to the power. This also means that the voters chose for the left by punishing the parties that are responsible for the economic crisis in the country. Therefore, a new page was opened in our country. The people trusted SYRIZA’s promise for change that it delivered to Kosta and Ali, both being the citizens of our country. SYRIZA broke a record in Rhodope with 48, 45% vote rates.

Out of three deputies that represent Rhodope in Greek Parliament, two of them were elected from SYRIZA and one from New Democracy. In Xanthi, 45, 40% of the votes went to SYRIZA who ob-tained two deputies out of three in total. Both of the deputies that SYRIZA got from Rhodope belong to Western Thrace Turks whereas one out of two deputies in Xanthi is from our minority. Thus, our minority believed in Alexis Tsipras and his friends who promised for change in the coun-try and voted for SYRIZA. As the minority, we want to have change, equality and justice. We want to get back our autonomy in education and religious affairs that had been taken away from us in 1967. The Greek state and its representative governments have not yet given back our autonomy al-though democracy was restored in Greece in 1974. We expect that our autonomy in education and religious affairs that we enjoyed until 1967 is restored with the new government in 2015.

The change in our country has already started when the new Prime Minister Tsipras did not handle the Bible during the swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Palace. He just performed a political swearing instead. I hope that the change that was already felt during this ceremony will not stop here and we see a real change in our country. I also hope that we are able to construct a new Greece where equality, justice, respect for human and minority rights prevail.

I wish that this election will be beneficent for both our country and our minority.

With my best regards,


Halit Habip Oğlu
ABTTF President