The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on Greece to “respect international law”.
A new provocative statement comes from Turkey, this time from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, which accuses Greece of not respecting the rights of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, in fact, states that Greece violates the rights and freedoms of their “compatriots” with the legislation on Muftis. He also calls on Greece to “respect international law”.
The ministry’s statement:
With a legal arrangement for Muftias in Western Thrace, Greece has once again violated the guaranteed rights and freedoms of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace
of international treaties, especially the Lausanne Peace Treaty.
This legislation, drafted without consultation with the representatives of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace, once again ignores the Muftis elected by the Turkish minority of Western Thrace and therefore the will of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace and the freedom of religion. In this context, we fully support the statement made yesterday by the Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, which reflects the fair reaction of our compatriots.
Article 40 of the Lausanne Peace Treaty grants the Turkish minority of Western Thrace the right to establish, manage and control its own religious, educational and
charitable-social organizations. The violation of this right by Greece in relation to its contractual obligations has also been recorded by ECtHR decisions in the past.
While Greece should provide the Turkish minority of Western Thrace with the necessary support and facilitation for the election, management and structuring of its Muftis, it is unacceptable for Greece to try to bring the Mufti under its own control, against the will of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace.
With this legal arrangement, Greece continues to violate the religious rights and freedoms of our compatriots, guaranteed by international agreements, and tries to turn the institution of the Mufti into a structure under the control of the Greek state. Turkey does not interfere with the functioning of the religious institutions of non-Muslim minorities in its country and the election of their leaders with such repressive laws and practices.
We once again call on Greece to respect international law, to fulfill its contractual obligations arising from the Lausanne Peace Treaty and other related agreements and to put an end to its policies of pressure and intimidation against the Turkish minority of Western Thrace. As before, we will continue to closely monitor the rights and freedoms of our expatriates.
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