Pomaks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that the "problems of Western Thrace" was the "main issue" he raised with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius on Wednesday.

As we walked through the narrow streets of Xanthi in northern Greece, we often heard Turkish being spoken in conversations. We sat at a cafe and talked about the community Imam Ahmet represents, the 40,000 Pomaks who are constantly trying to find their voice as a minority within a minority.

A Muslim in Athens praying in a new mosque, the first official place of worship for Muslims in Athens, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/ORESTI PANAGIOTOU

The letter focuses on its educational and religious problems and its legal harassment for use of the word "Turkish".

By George Gilson

Greece must put an end to its interventionist practices and policies of pressure against Muslim religious leaders elected by the Turkish minority in Western Thrace, Turkey's foreign minister said on Sept. 4.

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The house was in a sprawl of cinder-block shanties on the eastern edge of the town. Two Greek flags hung near the approach. Beyond them lay the Muslim cemetery. The women served coffee, accompanied by the usual jokes about whether to call it Greek or Turkish. The correct term, of course, depended on where you happened to be.

Ankara on May 22 urged Athens to end its denial of the identity of Turkish minority living in Greece.

The Greek Foreign Ministry dismissed accusations by Turkey on Wednesday that Greece is oppressing its Muslim community in Western Thrace as "paradoxical, if not funny." 
"History will forever be the most objective witness to the way in which Turkey has systematically eliminated all minorities in its territory during the 20th century," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey has accused Greece of oppressing the members of its Muslim community in western Thrace, while slamming the European Union for allegedly tolerating the "systematic violation of human rights" in the country.

The village community of Echinos in the regional unit of Thrace, northern Greece, was placed on lockdown as of Wednesday afternoon after health authorities recorded an unusually high number of coronavirus infections.