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]
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, becamepart 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
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 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
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: Τούρκικη Μειονοτική Κίνηση για τα Ανθρώπινα και Μειονοτικά Δικαιώματα, Toúrkiki Meionotikí Kínisi yia ta Anthrópina kai Meionotiká Dikaiómata, Turkish: İnsan ve Azınlık Hakları için Türk 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]
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 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
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 Sinikoğlu; the elected Mufti of Komotini was Mr Şerif and the government recognized one was Mr Cemali. According to the Greek government, the elections by which Mr Aga and Mr Şerif 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 Şerif.[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]
Demographic features of the population of Turkey include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Pomaks are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey, and northeastern Greece. The c. 220,000 strong ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is recognized officially as Bulgarian Muslims by the government. The term has also been used as a wider designation, including also the Slavic Muslim populations of North Macedonia and Albania.
Eastern Macedonia and Thrace is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It consists of the northeastern parts of the country, comprising the eastern part of the region of Macedonia along with the region of Western Thrace, and the islands of Thasos and Samothrace.
Xanthi is a city in the region of Western Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi regional unit of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace.
Western Thrace or West Thrace also known as Greek Thrace or Aegean Thrace, is a geographic and historical region of Greece, between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country; East Thrace, which lies east of the river Evros, forms the European part of Turkey, and the area to the north, in Bulgaria, is known as Northern Thrace.
Komotini is a city in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, northeastern Greece and its capital. It is also the capital of the Rhodope. It was the administrative centre of the Rhodope-Evros super-prefecture until its abolition in 2010, by the Kallikratis Plan. The city is home to the Democritus University of Thrace, founded in 1973. Komotini is home to a sizeable Turkish minority. They were excluded from the 1923 population exchange. According to the 2021 census, the municipality of Komotini had population of 65,243 citizens.
Islam in Greece is represented by two distinct communities; Muslims that have lived in Greece since the times of the Ottoman Empire and Muslim immigrants that began arriving in the last quarter of the 20th century, mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki. Muslims in Greece are mainly immigrants from The Middle East, other Balkan regions, South Asia & North Africa.
Muhacir are the estimated millions of Ottoman Muslim citizens and their descendants born after the onset of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Muhacirs are mostly Turks but also Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Pomaks, Macedonian Muslims, Greek Muslims, Serb Muslims, Georgian Muslims, and Muslim Roma who emigrated to East Thrace and Anatolia from the late 18th century until the end of the 20th century, mainly to escape ongoing persecution in their homelands.
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey. It involved at least 1.6 million people, most of whom were forcibly made refugees and de jure denaturalized from their homelands.
Minorities in Greece are small in size compared to Balkan regional standards, and the country is largely ethnically homogeneous. This is mainly due to the population exchanges between Greece and neighboring Turkey and Bulgaria, which removed most Muslims and those Christian Slavs who did not identify as Greeks from Greek territory. The treaty also provided for the resettlement of ethnic Greeks from those countries, later to be followed by refugees. There is no official information for the size of the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities because asking the population questions pertaining to the topic have been abolished since 1951.
Turks of Western Thrace are ethnic Turks who live in Western Thrace, in the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece.
The Provisional Government of Western Thrace later Independent Government of Western Thrace, was a small, short-lived unrecognized republic established in Western Thrace from August 31 to October 25, 1913. It encompassed the area surrounded by the rivers Maritsa (Evros) in the east, Mesta (Nestos) in the west, the Rhodope Mountains in the north and the Aegean Sea in the south. Its total territory was approximately 8600 km².
Religion in Greece is dominated by Christianity, in particular the Greek Orthodox Church, which is within the larger communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It represented 90% of the total population in 2015 and is constitutionally recognized as the "prevailing religion" of Greece. Religions with smaller numbers of followers include Islam, Western Catholicism, Greek Catholicism, Judaism, Evangelicalism, Hellenic paganism, and Jehovah's Witnesses. A small number of Greek atheists exist, not self-identifying as religious.
The Komotini events occurred on 29 January 1990 between local Greek Christians and members of the Muslim minority in the Komotini area in northern Greece. The events started over the conviction and imprisonment of an ethnic Turkish MP, Sadik Achmet, by a Greek court. 400 shops were looted, and the offices of two Turkish newspapers ransacked. The clashes broke out after the murder of an ethnic Greek by a Muslim, while there were no Turkish casualties during the events.
The Albanians of Western Thrace form an ethnic minority in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace along the border with Turkey. They speak the Northern Tosk subbranch of Tosk Albanian and are descendants of the Albanian population of Eastern Thrace who migrated during the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s.
The Turkish Union of Xanthi is one of the three most important organizations of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace. Founded in 1927, the organization was outlawed by Greek authorities in 1987 and 1999. In 2008, a decision of the European Court of Human Rights ordered the re-legalization of the association and convicted Greece of violating the freedom of association; however, the Greek authorities refused to re-legalize it. It has been accused of having relations with the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party and the far-right terrorist organization Grey Wolves.
Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, representing an estimated 25 to 28 percent of the population. Historically, in the Ottoman Empire, Islam was the official and dominant religion, with Muslims having more rights than non-Muslims, whose rights were restricted. Non-Muslim (dhimmi) ethno-religious groups were legally identified by different millet ("nations").
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe was established in Germany in 1988 by seven founding associations, as a nonprofit umbrella organization and dissolved in 2013. With the Association of Western Thrace Turks in the UK, the organisation adopted its current name.
The Hayriyye Madrasa also commonly known as the Madrasa of Komotini is a madrasa turned minority school in the town of Komotini, in the Western Thrace region of Greece. It includes the complex of the Ottoman Kayali Madrasa and some newer buildings in the public market, where the Softalar Madrasa once stood.
The Clock tower of Xanthi is an Ottoman-era monument located in the central square of the town of Xanthi, in northern Greece.
↑ Treaty of Lausanne. Part 1, Peace Treaty. Article 45: "Τα αναγνωρισθέντα δια των διατάξεων του παρόντος Τμήματος δικαιώματα εις τας εν Τουρκία μη μουσουλμανικάς μειονότητας, αναγνωρίζονται επίσης υπό της Ελλάδος εις τας εν τω εδάφει αυτής ευρισκομένας μουσουλμανικάς μειονότητας". "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."
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