On the 100th anniversary of Lausanne, the Greek state's perennial anti-minority policy in Prin newspaper!
On the 100th anniversary of Lausanne, the Greek state's permanent anti-minority policy in Prin newspaper!
In an article published in the Athens-based Prin newspaper on 24 July 2023 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, journalist Giorgos Mihailidis, in his article titled "The Greek state against the Thracian minority", stated that the Greek state has always approached the Turkish community in Western Thrace with suspicion and members of the minority have been targeted and demonised.
Mihailidis stated that after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, the Greek state adopted a state policy towards the Muslim population in Western Thrace, which is basically oppressive, full of contradictions and fluctuations based on international circumstances, but based on the instrumentalisation of the minority or part of it, He stated that from 1923 until the second half of the 1950s, the state used the term "Turk" for the minority population in the region in official correspondence and public life, but in 1957, with a secret decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the term "Turk" was restricted and eventually abolished.
Mihailidis states that from the late 1950s onwards, the minority began to be characterised as a "national danger" due to the crisis in Turkish-Greek relations, and from then on, state policy was secretly coordinated by the Thracian Coordination Council, which consisted of local administrative agents, government officials, the police and the army. Mihailidis stated that the repression against the minority population gradually intensified in order to limit Turkish influence in the region and to force minority members to emigrate, and that the term "Turkish minority" disappeared during the dictatorship.
Mihailidis stated that from the 1960s onwards, a quasi-military control was established over the daily life of the minority population, with unofficial practices against members of the minority, and the Muslim identity, not Turkish, was promoted. Mihailidis stated that in the 1990s, with the 29 January events, the extreme manifestation of the state's anti-minority policy was experienced, but that the semi-military control ended in 1996. However, Mihailidis noted that a characteristic feature of the Greek state's persistent anti-minority policy is the constant state suspicion of the minority population in Thrace, with the targeting and demonisation of minority members.
Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), said: "On the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, in which our fate was determined, we see that discussions on how the state policy towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace in our country has changed from "Turkish" to "Muslim" in the historical process have started to be voiced at the national level. Before and after the 21 May elections, similar views emerged on this issue. After experiencing the clearest example of the policy of defamation, stigmatisation and targeting of our society after the elections, this article, which says that this situation is the state policy itself, shows that it is time for change in our country! The government should take a real and sincere step to change the state policy that ignores, marginalises and demonises the Turkish community in Western Thrace on the 100th anniversary of Lausanne! This country is ours, all of us! As I have always said, we have been side by side with Kosta and Maria for centuries, the state policy should be unifying, not divisive, and the government should put forward a strong political will to solve our current problems! The first step of the government should be to implement the ECtHR judgements, which we have been waiting for 15 years to be implemented, urgently and without any excuse, so that the official personality of the Xanthi Turkish Union is restored and the registration of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Minority Youth Association in the Prefecture of Evros is approved."