'Greece must abide by ECHR rulings on minority Turks'

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA

Turkey’s president said Friday that Athens must implement European human rights rulings upholding the rights of the Muslim-Turkish minority in Greece’s Western Thrace region.

"We expect the implementation of European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] rulings,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said while visiting the region, which is home to a Muslim-Turkish minority of around 150,000 people.

The minority should also be able to benefit from the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, the European Union acquis communautaire, and the international universal human rights framework, the president said in Komotini, a major city in Western Thrace, on the second day of his two-day visit to Greece.

Under one 2008 ECHR ruling, the right of Turks in Western Thrace to use the word "Turkish" in the name of associations was guaranteed, but Athens has failed to implement the ruling, effectively banning the Turkish group identity.

Erdogan said solving minority problems will bring Athens and Ankara closer together.

"The Greek state should not demand that my kinsmen assimilate,” said Erdogan.

“Because up until this day, we [Turkey] have not demanded that from any ethnic group, nor will we."

Erdogan said Turkey has taken critical steps to improve the lives of the Greek minority living in Turkey.

"We believe that it is our right to expect similar attitudes from Greece," he said.

-‘Bridge’ between Turkey, Greece

Earlier, speaking at Komotini’s Celal Bayar Minority High School, Erdogan called the Western Thracian Muslim-Turkish minority a “bridge” between Greece and Turkey.

Erdogan said the minority has won its struggle for survival and praised them for that.

The Greek parliament currently has four lawmakers representing the minority, he said.

"These four lawmakers need to do a lot in the Greek parliament. They should voice your problems," Erdogan said.

He said if their problems are solved, solidarity in Greece will be strengthened.

Erdogan also said he had fruitful talks with his Greek counterpart Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Greek on Thursday.

Erdogan was accompanied by a delegation of top officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, EU Minister Omer Celik, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, and Energy Minister Berat Albayrak.

Also accompanying the president were Greece’s Alternate Foreign Minister Georgios Katrougalos and Deputy Foreign Minister Ioannis Amanatidis.