metecyp wrote:Why is it apples and oranges? Because Turks in Thrace are much less than Kurds in Turkey? Isn't West Thrace mainly Turkish? If they're the majority in Western Thrace and if you support the idea of self-determination for any ethnic group that is majority in an area, then why can not Turks in Greece have their own country?
Precisely because numbers do matter in that case, as it equally matters to whom each plots of land belongs. Let me explain.
Neither Macedonia nor Thrace belongs to any sort of Turkish minority, any way you look at it. Historically, anthropologically, culturally. The, otherwise welcomed, Turkish minority has been found there as a result of the long lasting occupation of the Ottoman empire.
On the other hand, what is unofficially called 'Kurdistan' has been the land of the Kurdish peoples, even before the Turkomongolic tribes left the plains of Mongolia.
Or you can look at it this way. The Turkish minority of Greece seems to have assimilated quite well within our society, despite sporadic minor problems now and then, in contrast to the Kurds, who still suffer, but to a lesser extent, from Turkish oppression.
To wrap up it, Turks have no foundation-either theoretical or practical- upon which to base any territorial claims or sovereignty, WITHIN Greece. Unfortunately for Turkey this is not the case with the Kurds.
I pressume the above clarifies the distinction between 'apples and oranges'.
Cheers.
