BTTDD President Hasan Küçük banned from entering Greece

The President of the Western Thrace Turks Solidarity Association (BTTDD), Hasan Küçük, has been banned from entering Greece. According to a statement released by the association, the entry ban was enforced on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at 3:10 p.m. at the Bahçeköy (Kipi) border gate.

In the statement titled “Certificate of Shame 2,” the BTTDD reported that Küçük was denied entry while traveling to Germany on a business trip via Greece. Greek authorities issued a “Non-Admissible Passenger Form”, preventing his entry into the country.

The association recalled that Küçük had previously faced a similar incident on August 15, 2023, but the ban was later lifted following interventions by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, allowing him to resume his visits to Western Thrace.

The BTTDD criticized the decision, contrasting it with Turkey’s goodwill gesture of reopening the Heybeliada Halki Seminary to serve the Greek Orthodox minority, while accusing the “Greek deep state” of acting in bad faith.

The statement read:

“While the Republic of Türkiye is taking steps to reopen the Heybeliada Seminary, closed in 1982, as a gesture of goodwill toward the Greek Orthodox minority, the Greek deep state continues its hostile actions.

Today, October 7, 2025, at 15:10, a ‘Certificate of Shame 2’ was issued, denying entry to our President Hasan Küçük — the representative of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority entrusted to Greece under the Lausanne Treaty.

This marks the second time such an unjust measure has been taken against him. Despite past diplomatic resolutions, Greece once again barred his entry while he was en route to Germany on a business trip.

As discussions continue about reopening the Halki Seminary as a symbolic restoration of rights to the Greek minority, representatives of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority are being denied even basic rights — including entry to Greece itself.

As members of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, our only expectation from our motherland is the restoration of our usurped rights in accordance with the principle of reciprocity. Unless this happens, the Greek deep state will continue its denial of the Turkish identity in Western Thrace.”