Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday received members of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board in Ankara, the Foreign Ministry said.
Some 150,000 Muslim Turks in Western Thrace, economically one of the poorest in Greece, have long complained about deteriorating conditions.
Seeing the community as a “hostage” of its ties with Türkiye, the Greek government has committed numerous breaches of its treaty obligations and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings over the years, including the closure of schools, the banning of Turkish-language education and refusing to legally allow the community to elect their religious leaders like muftis (Muslim clerics), which is also another treaty right.
