Religious autonomy of Western Thrace Turks is being abolished step by step by the Greek government

Halit Habip Oğlu: “As the Western Thrace Turks without permitting another fait accompli of the Greek government, we should advocate our religious autonomy within the scope of rules of law to the end which we guaranteed with agreements through utilization of all democratic tools in hand.”

The Greek government established a commission on operation of offices of muftis in the region of Western Thrace where the Turkish community lives. According to the news in Gündem newspaper, while the commission was established with the decision of the Greek Education Minister Kostas Gavroglu to modernize operation and increase the level of the offices of muftis has 4 Greek bureaucrats there is no one representing the Western Thrace Turkish community within the commission. Offices of muftis in Xanthi, Komotini and Didymoteicho will be visited and the report to be prepared on operation judicial power of the office of the mufti by appointed coordinator of the commission, Eleni Anastasopulu, Vice President of Department of Different Sects at Secretary General of Religious Affairs in Greek Ministry of Education, will be presented to Minister of Education Gavroglu.

Related to the subject matter, Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) stated: “The Greek government first organized teachers of religion course recruited as civil servants on contract basis pursuant to 240 İmam Law under the name “Rhodope-Evros Religion Teachers Association”. Subsequently, administrators of this association after dismissal of the old mufti visited the acting mufti appointed to Didymoteicho at his office. And the Greek Government in its next step dismissed the appointed muftis in Xanthi and Komotini and now it plans to have the religion teachers serving in the state schools select the new muftis in Komotini, Xanthi and Didymoteicho and plans to appoint them. In meanwhile two separate cases are filed against the muftis selected by the Western Thrace Turkish community on the grounds that they occupy the office of the mufti. And now according to the statements of the Greek government authorities, a commission is established to modernize and increase the level of the offices of muftis however there is no one from Western Thrace Turks in this commission which directly involves Western Thrace Turkish community about the office of mufti. It is also remarkable that this commission was established in the beginning of last March just after the panel organized in Athens where sharia powers of the muftis were questioned. All these incidents experienced recently show that in order to abolish religious autonomy of Western Thrace Turks completely, the Greek Government applies its sneaky plan step by step. As ABTTF as regards these intentions against our religious autonomy, we drafted a letter and sent it to international organizations. In response to our letter, Federal Union of European Nations (FUEN) with the press release it issued, condemned attitudes of Greek authorities for Ahmet Mete, selected mufti of Xanthi and İbrahim Şerif, selected mufti of Komotini and announced it would be the follower of the cases filed against our muftis. FUEN, brought the issue of legal proceedings as an intimidation and oppression instrument against Western Thrace Turks to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Our country Greece was so disturbed by this explanation that it pointed me as a target as Vice-President of FUEN and responded in a very rude and undiplomatic style and also blamed FUEN for being an NGO serving the Turkish government. Our country devoid of diplomacy and reality impeached me and FUEN severely for working for and supporting Western Thrace Turks. In the light of all these experienced without permitting another fait accompli of the Greek Government we should advocate our religious autonomy within the scope of rules of law to the end which we guaranteed with agreements through utilization of all democratic tools in hand.”