In the European Parliament (EP) elections held in Greece on 9 June 2024, the Friendship Equality and Peace (FEP) Party, the only political party and representative of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the political field, became the first party by receiving the most votes in the prefectures of Rodopi and Xanthi, as in 2014 and 2019. and achieved another historical success.
The FEP Party became the first party in the prefecture of Rodopi with 36.10% of the votes and in the prefecture of Xanthi with 27.16% of the votes, while the ruling New Democracy (ND) became the second party with 19.61% of the votes in Rodopi and 20.39% in Xanthi.
President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habip Oğlu made the following statement with respect to the historic success realised by the FEP Party in the 2024 EP elections: ‘‘We have left the EP elections behind us again. In these elections, we showed that we are ‘Turks’ with the votes we casted to our party, and we proved our existence in the region to the government and the entire public with the votes our party received. First, I congratulate the FEP Party for joining the democratic election race with its decision to participate in the elections, and the entire Turkish community for showing our unity and solidarity to everyone by going to the polls and voting for our party. However, our success must have upset some people in our country, as groundless accusations against our FEP Party came to the fore again. Drop these empty words! In 2024, the picture is the same in the previous two elections. Who lives in in Western Thrace? We do exist. Who are we? We are Turks! In other words, there is a community in the region that speaks Turkish, lives and maintains Turkish traditions, customs and culture, and has been transmitting Turkish culture from generation to generation for centuries. But our country is trying to deny this fact! On the other hand, New Democracy, which governs our country, nominated Alfred Beleri, an Albanian citizen and member of the Greek minority in Albania, who was sentenced to prison for corruption in local elections, as a candidate in the EP elections and had him elected to the EP. But when we say we are ‘Turks’ and when we fight for the rights and freedoms of our community, there is nothing left unsaid for us. Enough! You are making yourself, our country, a laughing stock within the European family. You support the Greek minority in Albania and Romania, you support the Greek minority in Istanbul, but when it comes to the ‘Turkish’ minority in your own land, you deny its existence. How does this work? It’s unbelievable! We exist, we are Turks! Everything will change the day our country, like other EU countries, perceives the minorities in its country as wealth rather than a threat. Sooner or later, it will happen!”.
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
