Prof. Dr. Kaymakçı reacts to Mitsotakis' thesis that "there are no Turks in Greece"

Association president Kaymakçı made the following statements in his statement:

"The issues of the Turkish minority living in Greece were also discussed during the talks and President Erdoğan said: "We expect the positive atmosphere in our relations to contribute to the fulfilment of the rights of the Turkish minority and our compatriots in Greece."

Responding to this discourse, Mr Mitsotakis stated that Greece considers the active presence of the Muslim minority in Greek politics as a "success" and only implicitly put forward the thesis that "there are no Turks in Greece".

We would like to state that Greek Prime Minister Kiryakos Mitsotakis' statement "There is a Muslim Minority in Greece" is not realistic.

In addition to Western Thrace, "there are Turks living in Rhodes and Kos" and they are "culturally Turkish, not Greek Muslims" as the official Greek ideology states.

Stating that they have shared with the public two documents showing that the Turks living in Rhodes and Kos are Turks, Kaymakçı's statement is as follows

"One of these is the Resolution of 9 March 2012 adopted by the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 'The Situation of Greek Citizens of Turkish Descent in Rhodes and Kos: The Situation of the Greek Citizens of Turkish descent in Rhodes and Kos'.

The second is a particularly Greek document. This document belongs to the first announcement issued by Major Konstantinos Krekoukias, Commander of the Kos Military Administration, after Rhodes and Kos was handed over to Greece in 1947. In the announcement, Krekoukais states; 'We wish to live in harmony and brotherly love with the Turkish inhabitants of Kos Island'."

We demand that the Greek State recognise the Turkish identity of the Turks living in Western Thrace as well as in Rhodes and Kos, and in this context we demand the opening of the closed Turkish schools in Rhodes and Kos on the basis of bilingualism, the protection of the architectural monuments which are the heritage of the Ottoman Turks, and the stopping of the sale of the properties belonging to Turkish foundations."