Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan referred to Greek Muslim citizens of Thrace as “Turks” and claimed their rights are being violated. Fidan also included the Muslim minorities of the Dodecanese claiming that their rights are violated.
According to Turkish media, Fidan addressed the 51st Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), held in Istanbul.
“The Turkish Muslim minority in Western Thrace and the Turkish population of the Dodecanese in Greece face serious violations that prevent them from enjoying even the most basic rights and freedoms,” Fidan was quoted as saying.
This was not the first time that a Turkish high official, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referred to the Muslim minority in Western Thrace as “Turks”, even though they are Greek citizens, descendants of the 1923 population exchange.
Speaking about the situation in Cyprus, the Turkish foreign minister said that there are two peoples and two states in Cyprus, and that the norther part is represented as an observer in the OIC.
The Turkish minister further said that the Turkish Cypriots continue to live under the unjust and inhuman isolation imposed on them for decades, calling OIC members to support their rights and to cooperate directly with them.
Greece replies to the Turkish allegations
In response to the speech of the Turkish minister, Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following statement:
“The Treaty of Lausanne clearly defines the character of the minority in Thrace as religious.
Greece fully respects and protects the religious beliefs and cultural distinctiveness of the Muslim Minority in Thrace, while at the same time ensuring, in a spirit of full equality before the law and equal citizenship, all their rights as Greek and European citizens.
Statements concerning the Cyprus issue certainly do not contribute to efforts toward progress and the building of trust. It is reminded that the framework of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions on Cyprus is binding.”
The Treaty of Lausanne (July 24, 1923), a peace treaty between the newly established Turkish Republic and the Western Allied powers, marked the official end of hostilities following World War I and the Greco-Turkish War. It also formalized the terms of the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, which had been agreed upon earlier, on January 30, 1923.
Under the terms of the exchange, approximately 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians from Asia Minor, Pontus, southern Caucasus, and Eastern Thrace were resettled in Greece, while around 400,000 Muslims living in Greece were relocated to Turkey. The exchange was based primarily on religious identity, not ethnicity or language.
However, certain Muslim communities in Western Thrace, such as the Pomaks (Muslim Slavs), were exempted from the exchange.