Map of the Greek Prefectures according to the 1991 census with the minority highlighted.
The
Muslim minority of Greece
is the only explicitly recognized
minority
in
Greece
. It numbered 97,605 (0.91% of the population) according to the 1991 census,
[1]
and unofficial estimates ranged up to 140,000 people or 1.24% of the total population, according to the
United States Department of State
.
[2]
Like other parts of the southern
Balkans
that experienced centuries of
Ottoman
rule, the Muslim minority of mainly
Western Thrace
in
Northern Greece
consists of several ethnic groups, some being
Turkish
speaking and some
Bulgarian
-speaking
Pomaks
, with most numbers descending from Ottoman-era
Greek converts to Islam
and
Muslim Romas
. While the legal status of the Muslim minority in Greece is enshrined in international law, namely the
1923 Treaty of Lausanne
, which also governs the status of the "
Greek inhabitants of Constantinople
" (the only group of the indigenous
Greek population in Turkey
that was exempt from
forced expulsion
under the
Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations
, along with that of the islands of
Imbros
and
Tenedos
under Article 14 of the
Treaty
), precise definitions pertaining thereto and scope of applicability thereof remain contested between the two countries.
History
[
edit
]
During the
Ottoman period
, some
Muslims
settled in
Western Thrace
, marking the birth of the Muslim minority of Greece. During the
Balkan wars
and the
First World War
, Western Thrace, along with the rest of
Northern Greece
,
became
part
of
Greece
and the Muslim minority remained in Western Thrace, numbering approximately 86,000 people,
[3]
and consisting of three ethnic groups: the
Turks
(here usually referred to as
Western Thrace Turks
), the
Pomaks
(Muslim Slavs who speak
Bulgarian
), and the
Muslim Roma
, in smaller numbers, that descended from Ottoman-era Greek converts to Islam, like the
Vallahades
, each of these groups having its own language and culture. Following the
Greco-Turkish War (1919?1922)
, in 1923 the
Treaty of Lausanne
was signed by Turkey, on the one side, and the
Kingdom of Greece
and other parties, on the other side, that provides for the status, protection, and rights of the minority.
Status in international law, terms and definitions, statistics
[
edit
]
Under the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne, the "Moslem inhabitants of Western Thrace", also referred to as "
Greek nationals
of the Moslem religion established in Greek territory", and the "
Greek inhabitants of Constantinople
", also referred to as "Turkish nationals of the
Greek Orthodox religion
established in Turkish territory", were exempt from the 1923
population exchange between Greece and Turkey
,
[4]
when 1.3 million
Anatolian Greeks
or
Pontic Greeks
and
Caucasus Greeks
were required to leave Turkey, and the 400,000 Muslims outside of Thrace, the whole
Turks in Greece
,
Cretan Turks
,
Cham Albanians
and the Romanian speaking
Muslim
Megleno-Romanians
(known as Karadjovalides (Turkish: Karacaovalılar) and
Muslim Roma
-Groups like the
Sepe?ides Romani
, were required to leave Greece, including the Muslim Greek speaking
Vallahades
of western
Greek Macedonia
. All the
Greek Orthodox
Christians of Turkey, also included the Turkish speaking
Karamanlides
would be resettled in Greece apart from the Greeks of
Istanbul
(
Constantinople
),
Imbros
(Gokceada) and
Tenedos
(Bozcaada), and all Turks of Greece would be resettled in Turkey apart from the Muslims of Greek Thrace.
[5]
Ethnic composition of the central Balkans (including present-day Greek Thrace) in 1870.
The official Greek text of the Treaty of Lausanne refers to "muslim minorities" in article 45
[6]
However, unofficial texts of the Greek State refer to one Muslim minority.
[3]
According to the Greek government, Turkish speakers form approximately 50% of the minority, Pomaks 35% and Muslim Roma 15%.
[3]
The exchanged populations were not homogenous; the Christians resettled in Greece included not only Greek speakers, but also Laz speakers, Arabic speakers and even Turkish speakers. Similarly, the Muslims resettled in Turkey included not only Turkish speakers, but also Albanians, Bulgarians,
Megleno-Romanians
and also Greeks like the
Vallahades
from western Greek Macedonia (see also
Greek Muslims
). This was in correspondence with the
Millet
system of the Ottoman Empire, where religious and national allegiance coincided, and thus Greece and Turkey were considered the parent state of each group respectively.
Today, most of the Muslim minority in Greece resides in Western Thrace, where they make up 28.88% of the population. Muslims form the largest group in the
Rhodope regional unit
(54.77%) and sizable percentages in the
Xanthi
(42.19%) and
Evros regional units
(6.65%).
[3]
Additionally, nearly 3,500
Turks
remain on the island of
Rhodes
and 2,000 on the island of
Kos
, as the islands were part of the
Italian Dodecanese
when the population exchange between Turkey and Greece happened (and so were not included in it). In contrast to the steady number of Greece's Muslim minority since 1923, Turkey's
Greek minority
has shrunk considerably due to oppression and violence orchestrated by the Turkish state in particular the 1955
Istanbul pogrom
.
The minority enjoys full equality with the Greek majority, and prohibition against discrimination and
freedom of religion
are provided for in
Article 5
and
Article 13
of the
Greek constitution
.
[7]
In Thrace today there are 3
muftis
, approximately 270
imams
and approximately 300
mosques
.
[8]
Applicability of Sharia law
[
edit
]
The
Sharia law
used to be mandatory among the Muslim citizens of Greece, a situation that stems from the Ottoman era and predates its reinforcement by the 1923 Lausanne Treaty,
[9]
[10]
making Greece the only country in Europe which had applied Sharia law to a section of its citizens against their wishes.
However, the
European Court of Human Rights
in its 2018 ruling, found unanimously that the mandatory application of Sharia law on the Muslim minority to be a violation of the
European Convention on Human Rights
, particularly Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), by Greece.
[11]
[12]
According to the lawyers, this was a big step since, as the minority's issues would be, from now on, judged according to the Greek law instead, which gives same rights to men and women, unlike Sharia.
[13]
Later that year, the Greek government drafted a bill eliminating the mandatory enforcement of the Sharia Law, and limiting its powers, making it optional, which, according to the then PM
Alexis Tsipras
, "expands the equality and equity enjoyed by all Greeks without exceptions". The bill passed by the Greek Parliament and was hailed by the Muslim minority as a historic step.
[14]
[15]
[16]
Politics
[
edit
]
The minority is always represented in the Greek parliament,
[8]
and is currently represented by
PASOK
members
Tsetin Mantatzi
and
Achmet Chatziosman
. During the 2002 local elections, approximately 250 Muslim municipal and prefectural councillors and mayors were elected, and the Vice-Prefect of Rhodope is also a Muslim.
[8]
The main minority rights activist organization of the Turkish community within the minority is the "Turkish Minority Movement for Human and Minority Rights" (
Greek
: Το?ρκικη Μειονοτικ? Κ?νηση για τα Ανθρ?πινα και Μειονοτικ? Δικαι?ματα,
Tourkiki Meionotiki Kinisi yia ta Anthropina kai Meionotika Dikaiomata
,
Turkish
:
?nsan ve Azınlık Hakları icin Turk Azınlık Hareketi
), while the Pomak community within the minority is represented by the Panhellenic Pomak Association and the Cultural Association of Pomaks of Xanthi.
[17]
[18]
Education
[
edit
]
Pomak village in
Xanthi regional unit
.
In Thrace today there are 235 minority primary schools, where education is in the
Greek
and
Turkish
languages,
[3]
and there are also two minority secondary schools, one in Xanthi and one in Komotini, where most of the minority is concentrated.
[3]
In the remote mountainous areas of Xanthi where the Pomak element is dominant, the Greek government has set up Greek language secondary education schools in which religious studies is taught in Turkish and the Quran is taught in Arabic.
[3]
The Pomak language (which is essentially considered a dialect of
Bulgarian
), however, is not taught at any level of the education system.
[19]
The government finances the transportation to and from the schools for students who live in remote areas, and in the academic year 1997-98, approximately 195,000 USD was spent on transportation.
[3]
There are two Islamic theological seminaries, one in
Komotini
, and one in
Echinos
(a small town in Xanthi regional unit inhabited almost exclusively by Pomaks), and under Law 2621/1998, the qualification awarded by these institutions has been recognized as equal to that of the Greek Orthodox seminaries in the country.
[3]
Finally, 0.5% of places in Greek higher education institutions are reserved for members of the minority.
[8]
All the aforementioned institutions are funded by the state.
[20]
Issues
[
edit
]
The main minority grievance regards the appointment of
muftis
. The Greek government started appointing muftis instead of holding elections after the death of Mufti of Komotini in 1985, although the Greek government maintained that as the practice of state-appointed muftis is widespread (including in Turkey), this practice should be adhered to in Greece, and as the muftis perform certain judicial functions in matters of family and inheritance law, the state ought to appoint them.
[3]
Human Rights Watch
alleges that this is against Lausanne Treaty which grants the Muslim minority the right to organize and conduct religious affairs free from government interference
[21]
(although it is unclear whether issues such as inheritance law are religious matters). As such, there are two muftis for each post, one elected by the participating faithful, and one appointed by Presidential Decree. In 2018, the elected Mufti of Xanthi was Mr Aga and the government recognized one was Mr Siniko?lu; the elected Mufti of Komotini was Mr ?erif and the government recognized one was Mr Cemali. According to the Greek government, the elections by which Mr Aga and Mr ?erif were appointed were rigged and involved very little participation from the minority.
[3]
As pretension of (religious) authority is a criminal offense against the lawful muftis under the Greek Penal Code, both elected muftis were prosecuted and on conviction, both were imprisoned and fined. When, however, the case was taken to the
European Court of Human Rights
, the Greek government was found to have violated the right to religious freedom of Mr Aga and Mr ?erif.
[22]
Another controversial issue was Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code, which allowed the government to revoke the citizenship of non-ethnic Greeks who left the country. According to official statistics 46,638 Muslims (most of them being of Turkish origin) from Thrace and the Dodecanese islands lost their citizenships from 1955 to 1998, until the law was non-retroactively abolished in 1998.
[23]
The final controversial issue is the use of the ethnic terms "Turk" and "Turkish" when describing the religious minority in Western Thrace as a whole. Although the Treaty of Lausanne refers to it in a religious context, as the Muslim minority of Greece, its precise identity is in contention between the minority's individual groups, Greece and Turkey. The
Turkish government
insists that all the Muslims are ethnically Turks, with Turkish officials characterizing them collectively as "Turkish minority". The
Greek government
however refrains from referring to the Muslim minority by a specific ethnic background, such as Turkish, since it is a multi-ethnic minority that includes ethnic
Greek Muslims
,
Pomaks
and
Roma Muslims
as well.
[24]
The "Panhellenic Pomak Association" and the "Cultural Association of Pomaks of Xanthi", have stated that Greece's Pomaks and Romas do not accept the Turkish government's characterization as "Turkish" for them, since they are self-identifying as ethnic groups distinct from the Turks; the latter also asserted that they have Greek national consciousness.
[25]
[26]
[18]
These arguments between Turkey, Greece and parts of Greece's minority have territorial overtones, since the self-identity of the Muslims in Western Thrace could conceivably support territorial claims to the Greek region by Turkey.
[27]
A number of organizations which are doing so, including the "
Turkish Union of Xanthi
", have been banned for using those terms in their title.
[7]
A decision of the
European Court of Human Rights
in 2008 convicted Greece of violating the
freedom of association
and ruled the re-legalization of the association. However, the Greek authorities refused to re-legalize it.
[28]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"ΜΟΥΣΟΥΛΜΑΝΙΚΗ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΘΡΑΚΗΣ"
.
www.hri.org
. Retrieved
24 March
2018
.
- ^
(in English)
US Department of State - Religious Freedom, Greece
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
"ΜΟΥΣΟΥΛΜΑΝΙΚΗ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΘΡΑΚΗΣ"
.
www.hri.org
. Retrieved
24 March
2018
.
- ^
Lausanne Peace Treaty VI. Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations Signed at Lausanne, January 30, 1923.
- ^
Greece, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Government of.
"Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations"
. Retrieved
24 March
2018
– via Wikisource.
- ^
Treaty of Lausanne. Part 1, Peace Treaty. Article 45:
"Τα αναγνωρισθ?ντα δια των διατ?ξεων του παρ?ντο? Τμ?ματο? δικαι?ματα ει? τα? εν Τουρκ?α μη μουσουλμανικ?? μειον?τητα?, αναγνωρ?ζονται επ?ση? υπ? τη? Ελλ?δο? ει? τα? εν τω εδ?φει αυτ?? ευρισκομ?να? μουσουλμανικ?? μειον?τητα?".
"The rights which are recognized hereby for the non-Muslim minorities living in Turkey, are also recognized by Greece for the muslim minorities on Greek territory."
- ^
a
b
Report about Compliance with the Principles of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
Archived
2003-05-23 at the
Wayback Machine
, by the Greek Helsinki Monitor, 18 September 1999
- ^
a
b
c
d
Μuslim Minority of Thrace
by the Greek ministry of foreign affairs
- ^
"New law for the Sharia status in Greece (original: N?ο? ν?μο? για το καθεστ?? τη? Σαρ?α στην Ελλ?δα)"
. PowerPolitics.eu. 15 January 2019
. Retrieved
29 September
2019
.
- ^
"Myths and Truths about the Muslim Minority (original: Μ?θοι και αλ?θειε? για τη μουσουλμανικ? μειον?τητα)"
. Protagon.gr. 11 December 2017
. Retrieved
29 September
2019
.
- ^
"Human rights court rules against Greece in Sharia law case"
. ekathimerini
. Retrieved
19 December
2018
.
- ^
"ECHR condemns Greece over mandatory Sharia Law in Thrace"
. protothema
. Retrieved
19 December
2018
.
- ^
"Deutsche Welle: Αναβαθμ?στηκαν τα δικαι?ματα των μουσουλμ?νων τη? Θρ?κη?"
. protothema
. Retrieved
19 December
2018
.
- ^
"PM Tsipras: Draft bill on Sharia law "a historic step for Greece"
"
. Athens-Macedonian News Agency. 9 January 2018
. Retrieved
29 September
2019
.
- ^
"Greece's Muslim minority hails change to limit power of sharia law"
.
The Guardian
. 11 January 2018
. Retrieved
29 September
2019
.
- ^
"Greece limits power of sharia law for its Muslim minority"
. Euractiv. 10 January 2018
. Retrieved
29 September
2019
.
- ^
"Pomak Association of Xanthi: We are not Turks, we are Greek!"
.
Greek City Times
. 19 March 2021
. Retrieved
29 May
2021
.
- ^
a
b
"Cavu?o?lu's visit: ≪Persona non grata≫ for the Pomaks of Thrace (original: Επ?σκεψη Τσαβο?σγολου: ≪Persona non grata≫ για του? Πομ?κου? τη? Θρ?κη?)"
.
Ethnos
. 28 March 2021
. Retrieved
29 May
2021
.
- ^
Report on the Pomaks
, by the
Greek Helsinki Monitor
- ^
United States Department of State
:
International Religious Freedom Report 2006
- ^
"THE TURKS OF WESTERN THRACE"
.
www.hrw.org
. Retrieved
24 March
2018
.
- ^
"...: Mihenk Dergisi :..."
14 January 2006. Archived from
the original
on 14 January 2006
. Retrieved
24 March
2018
.
- ^
Press Release of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe
Archived
2011-09-27 at the
Wayback Machine
and
HRW World Report 1999: Greece:Human Rights Developments
- ^
"Δ?λωση του Εκπροσ?που του Υπουργε?ου Εξωτερικ?ν, Αλ?ξανδρου Παπα?ω?ννου, αναφορικ? με τι? δηλ?σει? του Το?ρκου Υπουργο? Εξωτερικ?ν κατ? την δι?ρκεια τη? ιδιωτικ?? επ?σκεψη? στη Θρ?κη"
.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece
. 30 May 2021
. Retrieved
30 May
2021
.
- ^
"The Pomaks of Xanthi responding to Asafo?lu: ≪We are not Turks. We have Greek national consciousness≫ (original: Οι Πομ?κοι τη? Ξ?νθη? απαντο?ν στην Ασ?φογλου: ≪Δεν ε?μαστε Το?ρκοι. ?χουμε Ελληνικ? εθνικ? συνε?δηση≫)"
.
Huffington Post
. 2 June 2019
. Retrieved
29 May
2021
.
- ^
"Xanthi's Pomaks: Cavu?o?lu's description as ≪Turkish minority≫ is insulting to us (original: Πομ?κοι Ξ?νθη?: Μα? προσβ?λλει ο Τσαβο?σογλου με το ≪τουρκικ? μειον?τητα≫)"
.
Star Channel
. 28 May 2021
. Retrieved
29 May
2021
.
- ^
See Hugh Poulton, 'The Balkans: minorities and states in conflict', Minority Rights Publications, 1991.
- ^
2009 Human Rights Report: Greece
U.S Department of State
Further reading
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]