PROBLEMS OF THE WESTERN THRACE TURKISH MINORITY

According to the agreements to which Turkey and Greece are parties, the Turkish population in Western Thrace and the Greek Orthodox population in Istanbul, Gökçeada and Bozcaada have been excluded from the compulsory exchange between the two countries. Today, there are around 150 thousand Muslim Turkish Minorities in Western Thrace who were granted minority status by the 1923 Lausanne Treaty. Articles 37 to 44 of the Lausanne Treaty include regulations regarding the rights of non-Muslim Minorities in Turkey; Article 45 states that these rights granted by Turkey to non Muslim Minorities are also granted by Greece to the Muslim Minority located on its territory. Geographically, Western Thrace covers the provinces of Rodopi, İskeçe, Xanthi and Meriç Evros.
There are serious restrictions on the “minority rights” of the members of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, especially in the areas of education and religious freedoms. As a result of the oppressive policies against the minority, the population rate, which was 65% in the 1920s, fell to 30%; the land ownership in the region, which was around 84% in 1923, fell to 25%.
There are many Ottoman historical monuments and mosques in Greece. However, over time, many monuments have not been able to maintain their existence due to lack of necessary maintenance and repair. Although the Sultan Çelebi Mehmet Mosque in Dimetoka, one of the most important architectural monuments of the early Ottoman period in the Balkans, was seriously damaged in a fire in 2017, not the slightest work has been done to restore it to date. In some cases, although restoration work is carried out by the Greek authorities, the character of the cultural asset is damaged during these works.
Problems of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace consists of multifaceted legal problems such as non-recognition of ethnic identity, non-permission to open bilingual minority kindergartens, closure and unification of minority schools, inadequacy of minority schools and non-permission to open new minority schools, need for qualified teachers in minority schools, non observance of the autonomy of the minority to manage and supervise schools, restrictions in the area of religious freedoms, illegalities regarding foundations, victims of article 19 and minority members who have been stripped of their Greek citizenship, and inequalities in the level of political representation.
It is the duty of all of us to convey the illegality experienced by the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace to the world public opinion and to ensure that they receive their legal rights on a legal basis without causing hatred and resentment. The normalization of relations between Turkey and Greece lies in determining that international norms are also necessary and mandatory for this Turkish minority group located in the center of Europe.
References:
1. http://nek.istanbul.edu.tr:4444/ekos/...
2. https://www.mfa.gov.tr/bati-trakya-tu...