The Foreign Ministry congratulated the newly elected mufti of the Turkish Muslim minority in the Xanthi (Iskeçe) region in Greece's Western Thrace.

Mustafa Trampa replaced the late Mufti Ahmet Mete following the elections.

"Upon the passing away of Mufti Ahmet Mete, Turkish Minority in Xanthi elected today their new mufti in an election they held in unity, solidarity," the ministry said.

Hailing the "high turnout" at the elections, Ankara wished Trampa "every success in his efforts to protect and promote the rights and freedoms of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace."

"We also appreciate the efforts of the Advisory Board of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, who, against all the pressures, has made great efforts to organize the elections so that the results would reflect the will of the minority," it added.

Ankara called on Greece to "respect the religious rights and freedoms of the Turkish minority, guaranteed by international agreements, in particular the Lausanne Peace Treaty, and human rights standards, as well as the will of the Turkish minority.

"As is the case until now, we will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of our kinsmen," the statement said.

Türkiye has repeatedly urged Greece to respect the rights of the Turkish minority in its Western Thrace region and to recognize their elected religious leaders.

Türkiye on Monday again urged Greece to respect the rights of the Turkish minority in its Western Thrace region and to stop denying recognition to elected Muslim clerics.

The Foreign Ministry said that Türkiye expects Greece to respect the right of the Turkish minority to elect their religious leaders, "which is guaranteed by international agreements, especially the Lausanne Peace Treaty, and to end its pressures in this regard."

In a statement, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board, on behalf of the Turkish minority, stressed that it will stand by its rights to elect its religious leader and protect its elected muftis.

The statement had also called on minorities to fill all mosques this Friday to show solidarity and to protect their identity, religion, muftis and usurped rights.

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.

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 and civil rights 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 muftis.

In addition to violating longstanding treaties, these policies are also often in blatant violation of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings.

In Western Thrace, muftis have legal jurisdiction to decide on family and inheritance matters for the local Turkish Muslim community.

The mufti elections have been an issue since 1991.

The election of muftis by Muslims in Greece was regulated in the 1913 Treaty of Athens with the Ottoman Empire and was later included in Greek law.

However, Greece annulled this law in 1991 and started appointing muftis itself.

Most Muslim Turks in the cities of Komotini (Gümülcine) and Xanthi in Western Thrace do not recognize the appointed muftis and instead elect their own, who are not recognized by the Greek state.