Prime Minister Tsipras announced that judicial powers of the muftis in Western Thrace would be restricted

Halit Habip Oğlu: “Our country Greece should immediately end its unilateral practices to abolish the acquired rights of educational and religious autonomy of Western Thrace Turkish community.”

Alexis Tsipras spoke at the closing of the Eastern Macedonia-Thrace Production and Development Congress organized on 13-14 November 2017 in Gümülcine (Komotini). Tsipras explained that Islamic law applied by the muftis(appointed) for the members of Western Thrace Turkish community would be abolished partially and a legal regulation would be made in the upcoming days to this end. Tsipras also mentioned the problem of education of Western Thrace Turkish community and stated that the government supports the state schools and makes the necessary interventions for meeting special needs of children of the minority. He further added that the government works hard to enable a decent environment for the children going to minority schools.

According to the legal regulation for abolishing partially the Islamic law in Western Thrace that the Greek government considers enforcing, judicial powers (sharia law) related to family and inheritance issues applied by the muftis(appointed) shall be dependent of the preference of the parties and in the case, that both parties consent these authorities shall be applicable. And in the case that the parties are not in agreement the case shall be heard by the court. With the new regulation authorities of the muftis(appointed) shall be determined by presidential decree and it shall be indicated among Western Thrace Turkish community members that the inheritance law has been determined by civil law norms. And the ones who would prefer the Islamic law will be required to declare this in written at the notary. The testaments prepared so far will be applied normally.

As regards the issue Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) said: “Educational and religious autonomy of Western Thrace Turkish community has been guaranteed with the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty, and the rights conferred by the treaty are acquired rights and not possible to be removed unilaterally at disposal of the government. Nevertheless, as it has done many times in the past, the government, without consulting with us, tries to eradicate religious autonomy of the Western Thrace Turkish community completely by this new legislation. On the other hand, the government, once again, disregards our demand for having Turkish-Greek bilingual minority kindergartens and obliges Western Thrace Turkish children to go to monolingual Greek state kindergartens. We call on our country Greece to respect educational and religious autonomy of the Western Thrace Turkish community and end immediately its unilateral practices.”