Friendship, Equality and Peace Party and EFA organise joint event in Komotini
Friendship, Equality and Peace (FEP) Party and European Free Alliance (EFA) organised a joint event in Komotini on Saturday 20 April.
Moderated by Pervin Hayrullah, Director General of the Western Thrace Minority Culture and Education Company, the event entitled "Democracy for All: Protecting minority rights through the European Citizens' Initiative", started with the speech of the President of the FEP Party Çiğdem Asafoğlu.
Stating that they will participate in the European Parliament (EP) elections to be held in June as a party, Asafoğlu stated that they achieved a good result by uniting as a society in the EP elections in 2014 and 2019.
Stating that they set out for the elections in June with people who are devoted to the cause of Western Thrace, Asafoğlu stated that they could not overcome the 3 per cent country threshold application brought to the election law in Greece.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUGGLE TO BECOME STRONGER
In his speech, Asafoğlu said, "We see once again how our founding president, our leader, the late doctor Sadık Ahmet and his friends, who decided to move from individual struggle to institutional struggle in order to fight more strongly against Greece, which deprived us of both citizenship and minority rights, have followed a rightful path and done their job."
Stating that the aim of the establishment of FEP was to find solutions to the problems faced by the Turkish minority in Western Thrace, Asafoğlu stated that the party expanded its field of struggle by becoming a member of the EFA.
"The contribution of EFA in asking questions in the European Parliament on our behalf and pushing Greece into a corner is very great." Asafoğlu said that thanks to EFA, they were able to announce the injustices that the Turkish minority was exposed to all over Europe.
TIME TO WRITE ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY
Asafoğlu emphasised that they have continued their struggle in democratic ways within the framework of the law until today, and evaluated that the party's coming first in Komotini and Xanthi, where Turks live densely, in the 2014 and 2019 EP elections was a democratic reaction to Greece.
Asafoğlu concluded his words as follows:
"But Greece politically could not read this correctly and unfortunately could not or did not want to make its political analysis correctly. However, the people who came together and supported the FEP party shouted with their votes; 'We are here. Listen to the voice of FEP. FEP is my party and my cause. Its voice and cry is my cry. Take DEB as an interlocutor and listen to it. You will have listened and understood me.' As loyal citizens of this country, we do not deserve this persecution. If Greece had spent half of the energy it spends on understanding us in order to crush and assimilate us more sociologically, economically and culturally, we would be a much happier society that loves its country today. Now is the time to stand up and write another success story. Now is the time to shout that enough is enough for Greece."
In the EP elections, which it participated for the first time in 2014, FEP ranked first in the provinces of Rodopi, Evros and Xanthi with approximately 43 thousand votes, gathering a large part of the Turkish voters.
On 26 May 2019, in the EP elections held together with the local elections, FEP came first in 2 out of 3 provinces in Western Thrace.
According to the law, parties that do not receive more than 3 per cent of the votes across the country cannot send deputies to the EP. Although DEB was the first party in Rodopi and Xanthi, it could not send a deputy to the EP because it received less than 3 per cent of the votes in the country.
After the results of the elections in 2019 were announced, Asafoğlu said: "Everyone must now accept that FEP has a place in the Greek political system. Our people have been disappointed with Greek political parties for years and now they want something tangible and they are looking for it under the roof of FEP."
EFA President Lorena Lopez, European Free Alliance candidate for the 2024 European Parliament elections, German politician Maylis Rosberg and FEP Party Vice President Koray Bağdatlı also made speeches at the event.
The event was attended by İbrahim Şerif, President of the Advisory Board of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and Mufti of Komotini, Mustafa Trampa, Mufti of Xanthi, Özgür Ferhat, MP of New Left Party, representatives of Turkish minority institutions and organisations, FEP Party MEP candidates and many cognates.
In the statement made by the FEP Party after the event, the following statements were made
"This evening we organised an event on the European Parliament elections with the European Free Alliance (EFA) of which we are a member. The European Free Alliance (EFA), which we are proud to host in our region and which has been instrumental in making our voice heard freely in Europe, has once again made it clear that it will be with us in this process. We would like to express our endless thanks to the whole FEP Party family, especially the Chairman and Members of the Advisory Board, on this evening when we started our election activities."
