ABTTF: 'Bakoyanni continues his baseless allegations against the Turkish community in Western Thrace'
Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) reacted to the statements made by Dora Bakoyanni, former Foreign Minister and President of the Thrace Development Commission, to the news portal "parapolitika.gr". In the statement made, it was stated that "Bakoyanni continues to use us as a material for her party's election campaign by targeting our community again and making baseless accusations."
In the written statement made by ABTTF, it was stated that "In an interview with the news portal parapolitika.gr on 19 June 2023, Dora Bakoyanni, former Foreign Minister of Greece and Chairperson of the Thrace Development Commission, claimed that a foreign power cannot use the Turkish community in Western Thrace as a tool just for its own interests.
In his interview, Bakoyanni stated that the New Democracy Party (NDP) wants a minority in (Western) Thrace that will flourish, develop, live in harmony and share in the development and prosperity of the region and that the new government should continue the practical implementation of the final report of the Thrace Development Commission at the level of education, culture, institutional changes, and development."
ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu stated that "Dora Bakoyanni, one of the prominent figures of the NDP, continues to target the Turkish community in Western Thrace in order to collect votes and to use us as a material for her party's election campaign by making baseless accusations. Bakoyanni, during her recent visit to a Turkish village in the province of Rhodope, implicitly threatened our community by stating that if the members of our community did not vote for her, the conditions would become even more difficult and tried to put a mortgage on the free will of our community before the general elections. Therefore, it is they themselves who use us as a tool for their political interests! In our country, we are being subjected to a discourse of marginalisation and stigmatisation in the political arena in a way that has never been experienced before before any general election. The dose of this discourse targeting our society has increased even more as the general elections on 25 June approach. The statements of Bakoyanni and other high-level politicians of our country, which marginalise our society and disregard its free will, seriously damage the reputation and prestige of our country, which claims to be the cradle of democracy, in the international arena."
