Turks of Western Thrace
France occupied the area at the end of the First World War, following the defeat of Bulgaria, and it passed into Greek hands under the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920.
[8] Under a protocol of the same year, the Turks of Western Thrace were exempted from the 1922–1923 exchange of populations agreement between Greece and Turkey and were granted rights within the framework of the Lausanne Treaty.
In contrast, the Western Thrace Turks are completely distinct from those referred to as Greek Muslims and were exempt from the terms of the population exchange.
[16] The Greek government especially resettled the refugees in Komotini, Xanthi and Sapes regions where the majority of Muslim Turks lived.
Each country agreed to provide the following:[20] The Lausanne Treaty defined the rights of the Muslim communities in Western Thrace, on the basis of religion, not ethnicity, as well as maintained a balance between the minority communities of both countries (Turks in Greece and Greeks in Turkey) on reciprocal obligations toward each of those minorities.
[21] In 1990 a new electoral law was enacted in Greece, which set a threshold of at least 3% of the nationwide vote for a party to be represented in the parliament.
[22] Xanthi: Chousein Zeimpek (Syriza) [7] There are presently two Turkish MPs from the Western Thrace portion of East Macedonia and Thrace, both of whom are affiliated to the Panhellenic Socialist Movement: Tsetin Mantatzi (Xanthi) and Achmet Chatziosman (Rhodope), former president (1999–2007) of the Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace created by former (1989) MP Sadik Achmet in 1991.
[29] After a lengthy legal battle, she finally won her case with a second appeal before the European Court of Human Rights and re-secured her Greek citizenship in 2001.
For PASOK, Tsetin Mantatzi and Seval Osmanoglou are among the 5 candidates in Xanthi, Rintvan Kotzamoumin and Achmet Chatziosman among the 5 in Rhodope.
3370), a person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without the intention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek nationality.
[35] The application of this law to the Turks of Western Thrace was a retaliatory measure in response to the devastating state-sponsored pogrom which targeted the Greeks of Istanbul in September 1955.
According to some sources, newspapers, magazines and books published in Turkey are not allowed entry into Western Thrace,[44] and Turkish television and radio stations are sometimes jammed.
[45] According to other sources, the minority has full and independent access to its own newspapers radio, television, and other written media coming from Turkey, regardless of their content.
[46] According to the Treaty of Lausanne, the Muslim minority is entitled to freedom of religion and to the right to control charitable and religious institutions.
However, the Turkish community believes that these international law guarantees have been violated by the Greek government[47] by denying permission to repair or rebuild old mosques or to build new mosques, by denying the right to choose the muftis (this chief religious officers), and by efforts to control the Turkish communities charitable foundations.
[49] According to a report by a local organization there have been frequent (six in 2010 and three in the first months of 2011) attacks against the private and public property of Turks in Western Thrace.
Among the recent incidents are three in 2010 (in Kahveci, Kırmahalle, Popos and Ifestos at Komotini) where attackers desecrated Turkish cemeteries and broke tombstones.
