-Public Statement-                                       

The situation and ongoing problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace are recently brought to the agenda of international organizations and institutions, and are thoroughly analyzed in the reports mentioned below. Although these reports have several misperceptions and failed to reflect the problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace with all its dimensions, it is a welcomed development that our problems are brought to the agenda of international organizations and public opinion.

 

·                         The report published by Commissioner of Human Rights of Council of Europe, Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, in February 2009 on the situation of minorities in Greece,

 

·                         The “Human Rights Report 2008 on Greece” published by the US Department of State on February 2009,

 

·                         The report prepared by Ms. Gay McDougall, United Nations Independent Expert on Human Rights, about the situation of minorities in Greece on March 2009,

 

·                         The draft report prepared by Rapporteur Mr. Michel Hunault, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, on April 2009 titled as “Freedom of Religion and Other Human Rights for Non-Muslim Minorities in Turkey and for the Muslim Minority in Thrace (Eastern Greece)”.

 

We call upon our state and government officials to take the following steps in order to save our country from the difficult position it now faces in an international arena, and to prevent human and minority rights breaches we are currently faced with.

 

Ø The relevant decisions of European Court of Human Rights condemning our country with regard to the Turkish Union of Xanthi, Cultural Association of Turkish Women of Rhodopi and Minority Youth Association of Evros should be implemented without delay. Aforementioned minority associations as well as other historical minority associations that were banned should be allowed to operate freely.

 

Ø The barriers on the “freedom of religion and conscience” of the Minority that was enshrined in various bilateral treaties and human rights documents should be abolished. In this regard, the persons that are elected by the members of the Minority should be allowed to serve as Muftis, the execution of the provisions of Law No. 3536/2007 that foresee the appointment of seminary teachers/imams (“ierodidaskala”) to our mosques and schools should be discontinued, and the limitations imposed on our places of worship (like the ones that arbitrarily limit the height of minarets) should be abolished.

 

Ø Administration of the properties that we have inherited from our ancestors vis-à-vis Muslim charitable foundations (waqfs)are carried by the people that were appointed

 

by the State since 1967. The management of properties owned by our charitable foundations (waqfs) should immediately be vested to the people elected freely by the Minority. The new law on the administration of Minority foundations (No. 3647/2008), which was enacted without taking the views of the Minority into account whatsoever, should be modified according to the wishes of Minority so that it could be put into effect accordingly. The waqf properties that were lost since 1967 due to unjust policies should be reinstated, or the Minority should be appropriately compensated. All taxes and levies imposed on waqf properties should be abolished all together, as well as mortgages on several immovable assets. In the same fashion, the obstacles that limit the ownership and discretion of Minority people on their immovable properties (like the problem of land registers in mountainous regions) should be solved.

 

Ø The citizenship of approximately 60.000 Minority people (including the ones who are currently living abroad) as well as their family members that were deprived of their citizenship due to the imposition of Article 19 of the Greek Nationality Code (Law No. 3370/1955) between 1955-1998 should be reinstated.

 

Ø The problems in the field of Minority education should urgently be solved in an effective manner. “Minority kinder-gardens”, where the language of instruction would be both Greek and Turkish, should be opened for the use of Minority students. The teachers of the Minority primary schools, who graduated from the Special Pedagogical Academy in Thessaloniki (SÖPA), demanded several measures to increase their level of Turkish language and to solve problems of the Turkish curriculum. Appropriate measures should duly be taken. Demands of the Minority to open-up new Minority secondary schools in the prefectures of Rhodopi and Xanthi should be met.

 

Ø The regulations, which hinder the just and free participation of the Minority in the Greek political life, should be abandoned. The application of 3 % electoral threshold to the independent candidates for the Parliament (as well as political parties) should be discontinued, and the system of “enlarged electoral districts” that is currently implemented in the prefectures of Rhodopi and Xanthi should be abolished.

 

Ø Relevant provision of Law No. 3647/2008 that brings positive discriminatory measure for the recruitment of minority people in public offices by envisaging % 0.5 quota should primarily be imposed in the Thrace region.

 

Ø The minority status of Turks living in the islands Rhodes and Kos should be recognized and they should be given appropriate rights.

 

Furthermore, the Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace would like to share its views with the public regarding some incomplete or wrong observations incorporated in the aforementioned reports.

 

§ The reports argue that Muftis cannot be elected due to the Islamic legal jurisdictions they have in their portfolio, and these jurisdictions that are currently been utilized by

 

“appointed” Muftis produce unfair and unlawful results. However, it should not be forgotten that members of the Minority are completely free to address themselves to the Islamic legal provisions or civil courts (with the exception of the divorce cases of religiously married couples). Furthermore, according to the Greek law, Islamic decisions of the Muftis are null and void unless they are approved by relevant civil courts on the basis of their constitutionality and whether an excessive usage of Muftis’ authority exists or not. The first and foremost request of the Minority is to elect their Muftis as stipulated in the provisions of various international treaties, to which Greece is a signatory.

 

§ In some of the reports, it is stated that several groups within the minority “feel under pressure and threatened”. The Turkish Minority of Western Thrace is one single Minority group whose status and rights are stipulated in several international agreements like the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. Statements made by some Minority members, who pursue a kind of anti-Minority rhetoric for the realization of their own personal interests, do not reflect the truth. The Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace welcomes every single member of the Minority who would like to join our quest for the extension of our Minority rights.

 

The Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace’s aim in issuing this statement is to invite our country Greece to cooperation for solving our problems of all kind by establishing a dialogue mechanism with Minority organizations and institutions. As loyal and compatriot Greek citizens, we are of the sincere opinion that dialogue and cooperation is possible.

 

Last but not least, we call upon the media and press to reflect our problems contained in this statement in a just, impartial and positive manner, and back-up our call for a constructive dialogue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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