Turkey launched an attack against Athens, claiming that Greece oppresses a non-existent Turkish minority in Western Thrace.
The tweet by the Turkish Foreign Ministry was made yesterday, the supposed “Day of National Resistance and Solidarity of Western Thrace.”
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said, among other things, that Greece ignores the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
“The Turks of Western Thrace have been fighting for more than 30 years for the recognition of their Turkish identity,” the Foreign Ministry said in a tweet.
“The rulings of the European Court of Human Rights in favor of the minority have not been implemented for a number of years,” it added.
“We will always stand by our compatriots in their just struggles,” the ministry concluded.
In fact, the post is accompanied by a photo that said: “January 29, Western Thrace, Day of National Resistance and Social Solidarity”.
Batı Trakya Türkleri “Türk” kimliklerinin tanınması için 30 yılı aşkın süredir mücadele ediyor. AİHM’nin Azınlık lehine aldığı kararlar senelerdir uygulanmıyor. Haklı mücadelelerinde soydaşlarımızın daima yanında olacağız. pic.twitter.com/PEM1xo9cec
— T.C. Dışişleri Bakanlığı (@TC_Disisleri) January 29, 2021
It is reminded that on the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s very own website in English, states on its Treaty of Lausanne page in Article 45 that:
“The rights conferred by the provisions of the present Section on the non-Moslem minorities of Turkey will be similarly conferred by Greece on the Moslem minority in her territory.”
Article 2 also states that:
“Moslems established in the region to the east of the frontier line laid down in 1918 by the Treaty of Bucharest shall be considered as Moslem inhabitants of Western Thrace.”
The supposed Turkish minority in Western Thrace are in fact Greek Muslims, some of whom are Turkish-speakers, and many others are Pomak and Roma, a fact that Turkey denies.
In fact, only a day before the Turkish Foreign Ministry made the claim that Greece is violating rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, it was revealed that Turkey has become the most prolific transgressor of the court.
Between 1959 and 2020, Turkey was found to have committed 3,309 human rights violations, more than any other country, Diken said citing ECHR data.
1.09 of every 10,000 people in Turkey has been subject to an ECHR decision, more than double the average across the 47 members of the Council of Europe.
