Turkish officials on Saturday congratulated Mustafa Trampa on becoming the new Muslim cleric (mufti) of the Turkish minority in the Xanthi (Iskeçe) region of Western Thrace in Greece.
Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop called Trampa to wish him Allah's support and success in this difficult but important position, adding: "As Türkiye, we will always continue to stand by our compatriots."
The head of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), Ali Erbaş, also congratulated Trampa on the same day.
Upon the passing of Mufti Ahmet Mete, the Turkish Minority in Xanthi elected their new mufti in an election held in unity and solidarity, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
“We congratulate Mustafa Trampa on winning the elections, held with a high turnout and wish him every success in his efforts to protect and promote the rights and freedoms of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace,” the ministry said in a statement.
It added that it also appreciated the efforts of the Turkish minority advisory board 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.”
“In this regard, we expect 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,” it continued.
“As is the case until now, we will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of our kinsmen,” the ministry highlighted.
Meanwhile, Greece recently proceeded with new legislation allowing the appointment of Muslim clerics by Greek authorities in Western Thrace despite the Turkish minority's opposition to the move.
Greece does not recognize the muftis elected by the Turkish minority in Western Thrace and appoints those who manage religious affairs in the region. Athens has maintained its stance with the new law and has also recognized the muftis as bureaucrats under the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.
Thus, the Greek government has received criticism from the Western Thrace Turkish minority for treating the muftis as an ordinary state authority.
Most Muslim Turks in the cities of Komotini (Gümülcine) and Xanthi do not recognize the muftis appointed by Greece and instead elect their own, who in turn are not recognized by the Greek state.
In Western Thrace, muftis have legal jurisdiction to decide on family and inheritance matters for the local Turkish Muslim community.
Mufti elections have been an issue since 1991.
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.
