Greece is proceeding with new legislation allowing the appointment of Muslim clerics (muftis) by Greek authorities in Western Thrace despite the Turkish minority's opposition to the move.
The new mufti law, which was submitted to the Greek Parliament in the capital Athens as a draft by the government on July 22 and entered into force on Aug. 2, draws attention as it does not take into account the views of the Turkish minority, although it directly concerns them.
The new law was also criticized for its timing as it is being introduced immediately after the death of the late Xanthi (Iskeçe) elected mufti Ahmet Mete.
Greece, which does not recognize the elected muftis in Western Thrace and appoints those who manage religious affairs in the region, has maintained its stance with the new law and has also granted the muftis the status of bureaucrat under the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.
Thus, the Greek government, which treats the muftis as an ordinary state authority, has received criticism from the Western Thrace Turkish minority.
In its statement on the subject, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board underlines that the community's preferences were not taken into account in the preparation of the law and draws attention to the fact that the Lausanne Treaty, which guarantees the religious autonomy of the Greek government, is ignored.
The board said, "We condemn in the strongest terms this anti-democratic and anti-human rights approach."
The new law was also criticized by Turkey for ignoring international treaties.
In a statement on Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry termed the move "unacceptable" and urged Greece to respect international law and fulfill its obligations under the longstanding Lausanne Peace Treaty and other relevant agreements on the Turkish minority in the Western Thrace region.
Greece's Western Thrace region – in the country’s northeast, near the Turkish border – is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority numbering around 150,000, or around a third of the population. The rights of the Turks of Western Thrace were guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but since then the situation has steadily deteriorated. After a Greek junta came to power in 1967, the Turks of Western Thrace started to face harsher persecution and rights abuses by the Greek state, often in blatant violation of European court rulings. The Turkish minority in Greece continues to face problems exercising its collective civil and education rights, including Greek authorities banning the word "Turkish” in the names of associations, shuttering Turkish schools and trying to block the Turkish community from electing its own muftis.
The office of elected Muslim mufti has also cried foul at the move said to violate the minority's rights guaranteed by the treaty.
"According to the Treaty of Lausanne, while the Turkish minority in Western Thrace has the right to elect their own mufti, Greece does not officially recognize the muftis elected by the minority," said the office of the elected Muslim mufti of Xanthi (Iskeçe) in northeastern Greece on Tuesday, stressing that the Greek move is contrary to Lausanne Peace Treaty, a pact in force for nearly 100 years, and other international agreements.
