Turkey on Friday condemned the demolition of an Ottoman-era Muslim cemetery in the Western Thrace region of Greece and called on the Greek authorities to restore the cemetery as soon as possible.
The cemetery in Xanthi (Iskeçe) was demolished on the pretext of building a football field.
The statement released by the Foreign Ministry said, "Necessary steps have been taken before Greece regarding the inhuman act, which is understood to have been carried out by the order of the mayor of Bulustra (Avdira)."
The statement said Greek authorities, who responded positively to Turkey's initiatives, were expected to complete the investigation they started by showing the necessary sensitivity and restoring the cemetery as soon as possible.
Greece's Western Thrace region is home to a Muslim Turkish community of 150,000.
Turkey has long decried Greek violations of the rights of its Muslims and the Turkish minority, from closing mosques and shutting schools to not letting Muslim Turks elect their religious leaders.
The measures violate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne as well as European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) verdicts, making Greece a state that flouts the law, Turkish officials say.
Turkey recently reiterated support for the Turkish minority community in Greece as a recent probe continues into the Xanthi Turkish Union (Iskeçe Türk Birliği) because of a rights march last July.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry last month asserted on Twitter that the probe is part of Greece's plan of intimidating and punishing minority members who seek to reclaim their rights, which were guaranteed by various bilateral and international treaties, including the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. The ministry highlighted that Greece did not implement rulings of the ECtHR regarding the registration of the union, because it contained "Turkish" in its title.
"We stand by the Western Thrace Turkish minority against the discrimination," the ministry added.
The march by the Xanthi Turkish Union, one of the oldest and most influential associations of the Turkish minority in Greece, was attended by thousands and prominent figures who protested that Greece had not applied decisions of the ECtHR that favored the minority.
A 2008 ECtHR ruling guaranteed the right of Turks in Western Thrace to use "Turkish" in the name of associations, but Athens has failed to carry it out, effectively banning the Turkish group's identity.
In 1983, the nameplate of the Xanthi Turkish Union was removed and the group was completely banned in 1986 on the pretext that "Turkish" was in its name.
To apply the ECtHR decision, in 2017, parliament passed a law banning associations from applying for re-registration, but the legislation included major exceptions that complicated applications.
