Symbol of the Western Thrace cause: Dr. Sadık Ahmet
Jailed for calling Western Thrace Turks "Turks", Dr. Sadık Ahmet died in a suspicious traffic accident at the age of 48 on the 73rd anniversary of the Lausanne Peace Treaty, which protected the rights of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace.
Today the 28th anniversary of Dr.Sadik Ahmet's death...
He founded a party to defend the rights of the Western Thrace Turks and fought until the end.
He was born in 1947 in Küçük Sirkeli village of Komotini. After studying medicine in Ankara and Thessaloniki, Dr. Sadik Ahmet did his compulsory military service in the Greek army for about 3 years.
Sentenced to prison for saying "Turkish"
Returning to his family as a medical Dr. in 1978, Sadik Ahmet started a petition to draw attention to the rights violations in Western Thrace in 1985, but was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 1988 for the campaign.
Ahmet was sentenced to prison again in 1990 for addressing the Turks of Western Thrace as "Turks".
“If being Turkish is a crime, I repeat: I am Turkish and will remain so”
Before going to prison, he made one of his most well-known declarations, "I am being taken to prison just because I am Turkish. If being Turkish is a crime, I repeat: I am Turkish and will remain so". Thousands of people flocked to Ahmet's court in Komotini, chanting "We are Turks" outside the building in support.
In his article titled "Complaints and Desires of the Turkish Society Living in Western Thrace", which he wrote in 1995, Sadik Ahmet wrote the following lines:
“Since the day Western Thrace was ceded to Greece, Greek administrations have always seen Turkish communities as a danger to themselves. The policy implemented based on this idea is grouped under two main headings.
First; Forcing the Turkish society to migrate, and the second one; to be able to assimilate if there is no immigration.”
Greece's denial of its "Turkish" identity
Dr. Sadık Ahmet made the following statements in the sub-title of "The Denial of Turkish Identity" of his article with the same title:
“The fact that the mother tongue is Turkish, traditions and customs, religion and national assets make it clear that the minority is Turkish. Greek state officials and at all levels of the administration, the race of the society is denied and it is claimed that it is only Muslim.
They even dare to say that the race of the society is Greek. In order to defend these claims, the 'Komotini Turkish Youth Union', which was founded in 1928, the 'Western Thrace Turkish Teachers' Union' established in 1936 and the 'Xanthi Turkish Union', which was founded later, were abolished, and based on the idea that there are no Turks in Western Thrace, the Turks only express Turkish citizenship, they approved the closure of the unions with the decisions of the court of Komotini and later the Court of Appeal.
This practice of the Greek state is in violation of Article 14 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
'Western Thrace' reaction to Mitsotakis: We are Turks
Today, Greece still continues to deny its Turkish identity.
During his visit to Xanthi on April 27, Prime Minister Kiryakos Mitsotakis described the Turks of Western Thrace as a "religious minority". Halit Habipoğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, said, "We are Turks who have lived on these lands for centuries."
Mitsotakis called Turkish villages "Pomak villages" and minority children "Greek children".
Historical Muslim cemetery in Western Thrace destroyed
The Muslim Turkish Cemetery in the village of Xanthi Horozlu, where the Western Thrace Turks live, was destroyed by the Bulustra (Avdira) Municipality.
Bulustra (Avdira) Mayor Yorgos Tsitiridis, arguing that the region belongs to the municipality, destroyed the historical cemetery to replace it with a sports facility and a playground.
Greek authorities do not allow Muslim cemetery
In Alexandria, near Thessaloniki, Greece does not allow to build mosques to the Muslim minority.
Turks have difficulties not only in finding education and places of worship, but also in finding cemeteries, because Greek authorities do not allow Muslim cemeteries.
Funerals have been buried in the cemetery hundreds of kilometers away for years.
Greece resists the decision of the ECHR
According to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Greece in 2008, associations have the right to have the word "Turkish" in their names.
However, Greece resists not recognizing this right to the Turks.
The first and only political party of Western Thrace Turks
In the general elections held in Greece in the summer of 1989 and in the spring of 1990, he entered the parliament as an independent deputy with the high votes he received. Dr. Sadık Ahmet founded the Friendship, Equality and Peace Party (DEB), the first and only political party of Western Thrace Turks, in 1991.
In order to prevent the election of Dr. Sadık Ahmet, Greece imposed a 3% election threshold on both political parties and independent candidates.
Suspect dies in a traffic accident
Sadık Ahmet died in a suspicious traffic accident on July 24, 1995, at the age of 48, on the 73rd anniversary of the Lausanne Peace Treaty, which protected the rights of the minority in Western Thrace.
He assumed the leadership of nearly 150,000 Muslim-Turkish people in Western Thrace, who were oppressed by the Greek state during the 1970s and 1980s.
Dr. Sadık Ahmet ended his article "Complaints and Demands of the Turkish Community Living in Western Thrace" with the following words:
“We want and expect Western Thrace Turks to respect their race, language, religion, customs and traditions, and to live like equal citizens in the place where they were born and raised.”
Years passed after the death of Dr.Sadık Ahmet, who defended the rights of the Western Thrace Turks until the end of his life, and the people of Western Thrace are still resisting the oppressive and blocking policies of Greece.
