Mufti elections to be held in İskeçe

The Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board announced the date and mufti candidates for the mufti elections to be held in İskeçe. Accordingly, Mustafa Trampa and Mustafa Kamo will compete as mufti candidates. Elections will be held on Friday, September 9th.

The statement made by the Advisory Board is as follows:

“Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board discussed the election of İskeçe Mufti at the meeting held in Gümülcine (Komotini) on 29 August 2022.

Contrary to our expectations, as the Western Thrace Muslim Turkish Community, after the death of the late İskeçe Mufti Ahmet Mete, our government did not take concrete and solution-oriented steps regarding the mufti issue in Western Thrace, and did not give any goodwill signs on this issue. On the contrary, it was stated that the new regulation on the muftis in Western Thrace, which was presented to the parliament a few days after the death of our mufti Ahmet Mete, is far from the expectations of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, and aims to make the problem even more intractable, let alone to solve the mufti problem. We observed with great disappointment.

We would like to emphasize once again that the new law on the mufti was prepared with a view that is completely contrary to the provisions and spirit of the 1913 Athens Treaty, the law numbered 2345/1920 and the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty regarding the mufti institution and mufti elections, and that the will of our minority was once again ignored.

When the government and the authorities of our country failed to show the will to solve the mufti problem, which is one of the most important problems of the Western Thrace Muslim Turkish Community, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board, taking into account the three mufti elections in the past, started the necessary studies to determine the new Mufti of İskeçe. In other words, the Muslim Turkish Minority of Western Thrace had to determine its own mufti and religious leader once again on its own initiative and by its own will, using its legitimate rights arising from international agreements.

In this context, as a result of the work carried out with the coordination of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board and the İskeçe Mufti Office, candidates for Mufti of İskeçe were determined. In this process, meetings and consultations with religious officials, minority representatives and minority leaders, and some people from the public were taken into account, and the sensitivity, expectations, and needs of our community were fully taken into account.

At the end of this process, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board unanimously accepted the candidacy of Mustafa Trampa, a graduate of Selcuk University Theology Faculty, who served as the Head of the Education Branch of the İskeçe Mufti Office and Mustafa Kamo, a graduate of the Faculty of Theology of Ankara University, who was the Personnel Manager of the İskeçe Mufti Office.

Subsequently, another meeting was held in Kırköy, one of the lowland villages of İskeçe, with the participation of the Chairman of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board, the Secretary-General, the members of the Advisory Board from İskeçe, and religious officials affiliated to the İskeçe Mufti Office on Tuesday, 30 August 2022, and the method of the mufti election were consulted and the opinions and suggestions of our religious officials were received.

After all these consultations, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board unanimously took the decision to hold mufti elections in mosques in İskeçe on Friday, September 9, 2022, with the method of raising hands, as was the case in Gümülcine and İskeçe in 1990, and also in İskeçe in 2006.

Accordingly, on Friday, September 9, 2022, an election will be held in our mosques in İskeçe to determine our new İskeçe Mufti during the Friday prayers. We wish it to be beneficial to the Western Thrace Muslim Turkish Community and invite our people to participate in the elections.

Announced to the Turkish People of Western Thrace and to the World Public.”