The minority's novel – “Turkish is the official language in Thrace”!
The minority's novel – “Turkish is the official language in Thrace”!
As we have mentioned in first part of the tribute, on 20-11-1987, the Supreme Court decided that the term “Turkish” should not be used in the names of minority associations, such as the “Turkish Youth Association of Komotini” and the “Turkish Teachers Association”. On 29-1-1988, on the occasion of this decision, strong protest demonstrations were organized by pro-Turkish circles.
In the June 1989 elections, the experiment of independent Muslim combinations, which began in 1985, was repeated with better preparation and with the full support of the state mechanisms of Turkey. The prospect of electing an independent led to an overturning of the traditional balances in the minority leadership and provoked competition for who would appear to be the most genuine Turk. In Xanthi, the independent Emin Agha failed to be elected, while in Rodopi, Ahmet Sadik received the highest percentage of all parties (32,62%) and was elected. Due to the late submission of the application, he was unable to be a candidate in the November 1989 elections, resulting in Mola Rodoplou being elected instead.
On 26-1-1990, Sadik and Sherif were sentenced to 18 months in prison for their previous offenses. On 30-3-1990, the appeals court reduced the sentences of both, who bought them out and were released. On 20-1-1990, however, the informal Coordinating Minority Committee had declared a student boycott of schools, demanding Turkish textbooks, but essentially to exert pressure on the defendants. Also, on 29-1-1990, it organized a demonstration, resulting in incidents. In those days, in fact, the Muslim Hassan Sali attacked and killed in the Komotini hospital Angelos Solakidis.
That murder and all the previous events exacerbated the climate. Despite the police ban, there were atrocities. The gathering of Muslims provoked a counter-gathering of Christians, who broke many windows of Muslim shops, but without, however, any mass violence against the minority. It was a blind reaction of the Christian element.
Exploitation of episodes
Turkey tried to take advantage of the sad incidents to accuse Greece internationally, with Yilmaz's letter to all European governments, while the Turkish consul in Komotini, Gyur, asked the prefect of Rhodope to compensate the "fellow nationals". The impermissible, now official, attempt to present the Muslim minority as Turkish forced the Greek government to expel the consul. In retaliation, Ankara expelled the Greek consul in Istanbul. In the April 1990 elections, in Rodopi Sadik was elected with 35,28% and in Xanthi Faik Faikoglou was elected with 25,61%.
As has been clearly seen from the previous parts of the dedication, from the signature of Treaty of Lausanne and especially the last ones after the invasion of Cyprus, Ankara's primary goal in Thrace is the complete and unquestionable political control of the Muslim minority. This is also the main mission of the Turkish consulate in Komotini. The consulate threatens and pressures Those from the minority who do not align with the orders. Taking advantage of the fact that most Muslims have assets in Turkey and send their children there to study, the Turkish services exert pressure on those who do not align.
Turkish policy towards the Muslim minority took on a more aggressive character from the beginning of 1988. As we have already mentioned, Sadik expressed this policy par excellence through his inflammatory rhetoric and extreme actions. The tension in Thrace, however, gradually subsided, especially after his death in a car accident in 1995, outside Komotini.
Sadiq's inflammatory rhetoric
The Supreme Court's decision to ban the term "Turkish" from the names of Muslim associations was used as a pretext to mobilize the Muslim element against the Greek authorities. The fact that in the early 1990s the Turkish party of Dogan became the regulator of political developments in Bulgaria also played an important role in consolidating Turkish hegemony in the minority area.
Indicative of the climate that prevailed in western Thrace at the time is the following excerpt from a letter from Sadik to the Greek Prime Minister on 15-12-1992, in which he asked for the removal of the prefect of Rhodope: "In order for someone to be a prefect in the prefecture of Rhodope, it is necessary to know Turkish and correspondence with the prefecture and with the services to be conducted in Turkish... It would be good for you to address the issue as soon as possible, so that this incompetent prefect can be removed from the prefecture of Rhodope and thus peace can be restored to our prefecture.».
Indicative of the climate is a publication in Sadik's newspaper "Balkan" (29.12.1992), on the occasion of the visit to the European Parliament of a group of Muslim teachers: "The administration's trumpeters should not forget that they can go to Strasbourg, but on their return to Western Thrace, those who will meet them will only be from the administration. It is also doubtful whether they will continue their duties in the schools, because there will be no guardians, members of the minority, who will give them permission to teach the children. Therefore, after their return from Strasbourg, let them look for ways to teach the children of those who sent them there.».
The 3% limit, transactions and Ziraat
The establishment of the 3% threshold for a party to be represented in Parliament put an end to the experiment of independent Muslim associationsSince the 1993 elections, the Muslim minority has been represented through candidates included in party combinations, although in reality, as a rule, the Muslim MPs they refer more to the Turkish consulate than to the leadership of his party, whatever it may be. Previously it was ND and PASOK, later SYRIZA was added. However, the transactions for the Muslim votes are holding up well…
Besides these, the pale and contradictory stance of the Greek state, in combination with the occasional Turkish provocations, has cultivated a sick atmosphere of cynicism and unfair electoral-party transactions around the minority. It has also been causing and fueling a climate of insecurity among the Christian element for years. The result is twofold. A large portion of the Christian population invests its savings outside Thrace (mainly in Thessaloniki), depriving it of valuable resources and economic development.
There are not a few who sell their property, even to Muslims, and leave Thrace to settle in other parts of the country. The Turkish state bank Ziraat, which operates in Thrace and the islands of the eastern Aegean, carries out more Turkish national politics and less business activity. For years it has been lending without bureaucracy and at low interest rates to Muslims and Christians. Over the years it has acquired a large number of properties and Christians, through the mortgages that those who cannot repay their loans have taken out.
Slpress.gr