Turkish Minority of Thrace

[Bananiot]

Apologies. I did not see cypezokyli's entry. He is a quick bagger, isn't he?

[zan]

[Dream_Merchant]

Its trying things from the other side.. sort of like changing roles.

[zan]

[cypezokyli]

on the topic of that old school book

http://www.enet.gr/online/online_fpage_text/id=95696860,409500,81636956

[Evro]

Tan: Thrace Turks deprived of basic human rights


Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Diplomatic sources interpret a committee decision by the Council of Europe as ‘a serious warning for Greece’

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


A recent decision by a committee of the Council of Europe clearly reveals that the Muslim Turkish minority in the Western Thrace region has been deprived of its fundamental human rights, Foreign Ministry spokesman Namık Tan said in a written statement released on Monday.

At a Dec. 6 meeting of the Committee of Ministers, ministers' deputies “noted with regret that the general measures taken in response to the previous, similar judgments of the European Court of Human Rights had proved insufficient to prevent new, similar violations in the present cases,” referring to a July decision by the court.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled at the time that Greece had violated the freedoms of religion and conscience by appointing a mufti in Xanthi (İskeçe) instead of a mufti elected by the residents of the area. The court then announced its decision concerning two separate applications filed by Greek national Xanthi Mufti Mehmet Emin Ağa against the Greek government, relying on Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights that covers freedom of thought, conscience and religion and Article 10, covering freedom of expression.

On Dec. 6, ministers' deputies also “invited the Greek authorities to rapidly take all necessary measures to ensure that Greek courts comply with the European court's case law, in particular, in cases concerning freedom of religion.”

The Dec. 6 decision “clearly displays that the Western Thrace Muslim Turkish minority -- who are citizens of a European Union member country and who are assumed to benefit from the EU regulations -- have been deprived of fundamental human and minority rights in the field of religious freedom as well as in other fields,” Tan said.

Ağa -- who played a key role in the effort to find solutions to problems faced by the Turkish minority in Greece in the 1980s and 1990s -- died in September.

‘Serious warning for Greece':

Since the Committee of Ministers' task is outlined as supervision of the execution of judgments by Strasbourg and also because the committee is a political body, the Dec. 6 decision has particular importance for the upcoming process concerning Greece's obligations stemming from the court decisions, diplomatic sources told the Turkish Daily News.

“The committee decision constitutes a very significant stage regarding the ongoing controversy in Greece over the issue of whether a mufti should be elected or appointed,” the same sources said, noting that the committee would from now on supervise steps taken by Greece in line with court decisions.

“The decision is a serious warning for Greece,” they said and added that Greece would now be expected to train its judges and prosecutors in line with the decisions of the European court in order to prevent similar violations of human rights from taking place.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=62032

[cypezokyli]

heres an interesting comment from a turk :

[stavrizatz]

So if Cyprus unites with Greece now, there will be no props!

Turkish Cypriots have to think the possitive aspects of it as well. Greece will not give Cyprus 12 points in Eurovision and vise versa because it will be only one country, so Turkey will have more chances to win.

[cypezokyli]

[stavrizatz]

I was not talking serious, i was in a funny mude so i posted a few lame comments.

For me more positive than the actual post is the fact that this was an article of TDnews

[stavrizatz]

I've met this guy from Turkey who was born in Bulgaria and now lives in Constantinople. He explained to me the tragic past of the Bulgarian Turks. He also mentioned the discrimination of Turks in Germany.

Also I've talked to someone who lived in Xanthi, he explained to me the situation in Thrace and their realtions with the Pomaks and Turks.

Ok Seur (the bulgarian born Turk) said that they were somehow forced to migrate to Turkey after the conflict that took place in the 1990s. He said that Turkish were even forced to changed names and they 've changed their names to Bulgarian ones. They were not allowed to even speak their ethnic language and refer to anything Turkish. He also told me about the Turkish migration movement to Germany and how Germans brought Turkish to Germany to do all the dirty work. The discrimination of Turks in Germany has been evident for many years and continuous at a lesser degree until today.

Ok now about the discrimination of Turks in Greece. As Dimitris said (the guy from Xanthi), in Thrace the relations between the Pomaks, Greeks and Turks are very good. At times Turkey fanatises the poor people using nationalism to create some trouble throught the institutions but other than that the relations are fine. There are ofcourse the nationalists on both sides but ordinary people, especially younger generations mix well.

Just added some more opinions to support my initial view... and Turkish Minority of Western Thrace is the perfect example of Turks and Greeks living together under the Greek state. Similarly Turks and Greeks could live in harmony in Cyprus under the Greek state and that is why I believe the idea of enosis is fair.

[Mete]

[stavrizatz]

Mete wrote:

[Mete]

[cypezokyli]