Conference for the Turks of Western Thrace on the centenary of Lausanne A conference on "The rights of minorities in Greece and the Turks of Western Thrace on the 100th anniversary of the Lausanne Peace Treaty" was held at Katip Çelebi University of Izmir.
There, Professor Ali Huseinoglou (originally from Komitini), who was one of the speakers at the conference, reminded our country of the 1988 riots in Western Thrace between nationalist circles and the Greek police and residents, "as a right move" for the recognition of the rights of the "Turks" in Thrace and the Dodecanese.
The same professor stating that he was born and raised in Komotini and made his first academic publications about Western Thrace exactly 20 years ago, is a member of the University of Thrace Balkan Research Institute.
“In this sense, we understand a community that is different from the majority, does not dominate it, and most importantly, has a minority consciousness.
As long as there is minority consciousness, it is not possible for that minority to assimilate into the majority. We see that minorities who do not have this awareness and forget their history, language, culture and religion disappear and are erased from history in many parts of Europe," said Huseinoglu.
He stated that the only officially recognized minority in Greece, as confirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne, are the Turks of Western Thrace.
Ali Huseinoglu stated that after the Greek Revolt that began against the Ottoman Empire in 1827, the establishment of the Greek State in 1830, and the gradual expansion of Greece's borders from that date, the majority of Turks residing in the region migrated to Anatolia.
"Until 1923, only the "Turks" of Western Thrace remained in the area. The "Turks" of Western Thrace live in an area consisting of three provinces, which is Bulgaria to the north, Turkey to the east, and which is located in the northeastern part of Greece.
It is an area that consists of Komotini, the center of the Rhodope province, where most Turks live, Xanthi, where the "Turkish" population is less dense, and the province of Evros, whose center is Alexandroupolis". he continued himself.
Dr. Huseinoglu emphasized that the "Turks" of Western Thrace and the Greeks of Constantinople were not subject to exchange, but that there were many families who were forced to migrate to Turkey by displacement from their homes, although they were not exchanged by Turks of Western Thrace until the decade of 1940, "because of the political pressure and intimidation of Greece" (the thief shouts so that the householder is afraid, as the wise proverb says).
Referring to the importance of the Treaty of Lausanne, he said that although the "Turks" of Western Thrace have lived in the same lands for centuries, as a result of the exchange of populations carried out with the Treaty of Lausanne, almost half a million Turks and Greeks immigrated from Turkey became a minority in the region".
Stating that this situation worsened the demographic structure of the region in favor of the Turks, Huseinoglu said that although the rights of the "Turks" of Western Thrace and the Greeks of Constantinople were protected at the international level by the Treaty of Lausanne, despite the fact that they passed hundred years, Greece has not fully implemented the provisions of the agreement in some areas.
Noting that January 29, 1988 was a turning point for the Turks of Western Thrace, Huseinoglu stated: "This is a date when the 'Turks' of Western Thrace said 'stop' to their policies of oppression, intimidation and assimilation."
Over ten thousand people who were in Komotini and participated in a protest rally during those difficult times.
This rally had two purposes, to show that the Muslims of Western Thrace are "Turks" and to make their voice heard.
This was a rally attended by Turkish women, and the Greeks saw "strong women there for the first time, and when I looked at the Greek newspapers that day, I saw that they were shocked saying, 'Where did these women come from?'
Because the Turkales were the women who lived behind those high-walled houses. They saw the dynamism of women there," he said.
"Turkey is the homeland of the Turks of Western Thrace. It is the homeland of the Turks of Western Thrace in 1923 and 2023," concluded Huseinoglu, among others.
The re-election of Erdogan will bring developments to the issue of the Muslims of Western Thrace and the Dodecanese, only in certain nationalist circles.
The majority of these citizens in both regions detest the Erdogan regime, which is desperately trying to spread its tentacles into their lives in Greece, without success.
Nevertheless, our country must keep all its agencies on alert, since a challenge from Turkey on this issue is possible in the next future period.
