ND deputy parliament speaker says Muslim MPs could be surveilled for national security reasons

Amidst a political uproar over the National Intelligence Agency's tapping of the phone of centre-left Pasok-Kinal leader Nikos Androuakis, New Democracy MP Charalambos Athanasiou, the second deputy speaker of Parliament and a former justice minister, cited Muslim MPs of ethnic Turkish origin as an example of legitimate surveillance of an MP by Greece's National Intelligence Service for reasons of "national security", a criterion set by the Greek Constitution.

The statement, which comes at a time that Turkey is vociferously claiming that Athens does not respect the rights of the Muslim community of Western Thrace, was a response of the former justice minister to a journalist's question on whether it is legal for EYP to conduct surveillance of MP's.

Though the Muslims of the region are of three different ethnic backgrounds - Turkish, Pomak, and Roma - Turkey claims that they all together constitute a "Turkish Minority".

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The Lausanne Treaty of 1923 - which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cites in demanding that Athens strip its Eastern Aegeam islands of its defences - specifically recognises only a Muslim minority in the region, whose rights are protected and respected, as Athens repeatedly declares, and no ethnic minority.

Main opposition SYRIZA has demanded that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expel Athanasiou from ruling New Democracy "today".

"Otherwise, he will prove that he is behind such unacceptable remarks."

Blatant Religious prejudice, a Muslim MP could spy for Turkey

Athanasiou in a supposedly hypothetical example linked Muslim MPs in Greece's Parliament with possible espionage on Turkey's behalf due to their religion.

"Let us suppose...