Cyprus-Forum.com

[brother]

Greek court bans Muslim association for calling itself "Turkish"
AFP: 1/13/2005

ATHENS, Jan 13 (AFP) - Greece's highest civil court upheld a decision to ban a Muslim minority association for calling itself "Turkish" on grounds of national security, court sources said Thursday.

The decision by Greece's Supreme Court to ban the "Turkish Association of Xanthi," a northeastern Greek town with a strong Muslim minority, was unanimous and cannot be appealed, the source said. It is expected to be officially announced in the coming weeks.

According to the source, the Supreme Court accepted the conclusion of Public Prosecutor Dimitris Linos that the association "served the interest of a foreign country in the attempt to appear a Turkish minority in Greece."

The decision ends a legal wrangle dating back to 1984, when a local court first banned the group on the request of the Xanthi administrator.

Established in 1927, the cultural organization counts some 2,400 members. According to its President Cetin Mandaci, it had "neither caused nor had" any problems.

The Northeastern Greek region of Thrace is home to a 100,000-strong Muslim, Turkish-speaking community that was often a source of friction between Greece and nearby Turkey.

Citing the international 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that established modern Turkey, Athens recognizes the community as Muslim but not as ethnically Turkish.

The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, signed in the aftermath of a Greek-Turkish war, enshrined a massive exchange of populations between the two countries in order to reduce the potential for inter-communal strife that could bring the two countries to war.

The Turkish-speaking, Muslim population of Greece and the Greek-speaking, Christian population of Istanbul were exempted from the exchange and continued to strain relations between the neighbours, regional rivals and NATO partners.

European Union member Greece has repeatedly urged Ankara to extend the rights of Turkey's Christian population to boost its chances for EU membership.

EU leaders agreed in December to opening accession talks with Turkey on October 3, but attached a series of tough conditions for the populous Muslim nation.

Athens has said it will be closely watching Turkey's behaviour before eventually accepting Ankara as an EU member.

Greece broadly supports Turkish integration with Europe, which it sees as an instrumental in defusing tensions over territorial rights and reaching a settlement on the divided island of Cyprus -- another EU member

[turkcyp]

May be one day, GCs finally understand why we have vehemently opposed to Enosis?

Do they know that according to official Greek policy there is no Turks living in Greece. There is only Muslim Greeks living in Thrace region but that's all. They can never call themselves Turkish.

So may be you start understanding how enosis for us was a definetly a "no-no".

Have a good day everybody,

[boulio]

acctualy the muslim minorty in thrace is identified as such by the treaty of lausaune,which turkey is a signaturor.besides the muslim minority in thrace is made of pomaks and muslim gypsis so you cannot classify them as turkish.

[metecyp]

acctualy the muslim minorty in thrace is identified as such by the treaty of lausaune,which turkey is a signaturor.besides the muslim minority in thrace is made of pomaks and muslim gypsis so you cannot classify them as turkish.

Well done! Nice explanation. And then you want TCs to trust you...

[boulio]

firstly im a greek not a cypriot,so for me the if turkish cypriots trust me it really isent of my concern.

secondly what is wrong with my statement?do you know that it is actually a time bomb for turkey the minority question to be revised in the treaty of lausaune?

[mehmet]

Boulio,

regarding your suggestion that they are Pomaks and muslim Gypsies do you also regard the people living in eastern Turkey as 'mountain Turks'? I hope you realise what I am getting at.

[mehmet]

Just for information Turkey has just recently recognised a Kurdish language exists as do the people that speak it. What language do these people in eastern Thrace speak? And why do they wish to call an organisation they belong to as Turkish? And why does Greek courts regard this as a threat to national security?

[metecyp]

secondly what is wrong with my statement?

What's wrong with your statement is that you don't have no right to label people. If "Muslims" in Greece feel Turkish, then they are Turkish and it doesnt matter if they are pomaks or gypsies. It's the "Muslim" minority's right to decide what they are, not yours or the Greek goverment's. The same applies to Kurds, Greeks, Armenians, etc. in Turkey. Turkey might have tried to label Kurds as Turks and it was wrong but this doesn't give Greece the excuse to misidentify Turks in Greece.

Here we see the double-standards again. Greece demands human-rights in Cyprus for GCs but completely ignores it in Western Thrace when it comes to Turks.

[boulio]

firstly i didn't label them muslim minority from turkish minority,the treaty of lausaune did.

secondly the turkish govt.has not recognized the kurds as a minority,the only minorities that turkey recognizes is that of christian minorities.

thirdly for decades and maybe still under a hidden agenda wanted the trnc represented as its own country through partition,does this give the right to the kurds to want to succed from the turkish republic and ask for a partition in the south east of turkey?

fourthly when greece asceded to the EU,IT gives the muslim minority the right to go to the ehrc for a verdict,they are welcome to do so,were do the minorties of turkey have to go?turkish courts,good luck.

[mehmet]

Boulio,

1) reread your own posts.

2) the Turkish government has recognised Kurdish language, that's all I said. In doing so by implication it is obvious to most people that a language is a defining characteristic (not the only one) of an ethnic group. What language do these Muslims regard as their first language?

3) the Kurds have the right to their own nation. I have said this before on this forum. I don't believe you are advocating for Turkish Cypriots to have their own state though are you?

4) if and when Turkey becomes a member of EU the same rights will exist for all citizens as they do in Greece. Why are you so defensive? Does everything Greece do deserve your support?