Representatives of the ethnic Turkish minority in Greece’s Western Thrace region are accusing Athens of exerting pressure on them through judicial and financial means to suppress the community’s voice and identity.

“The minority has proven to the Greek state that we live here, we exist, we have issues, and we are Turks,” said Cigdem Asafoglu, leader of the Greek Friendship, Equality and Peace Party (FEP), speaking to TRT World on the sidelines of the Fourth Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

The FEP, which is backed by the country’s 150,000-strong Turkish minority, won the majority in two out of three provinces in the region during the European Parliament (EP) election on June 9, 2024.

It made a strong showing in the previous two elections as well. Yet, it hasn’t been able to send its MPs to the European Parliament. That’s because of the three percent electoral threshold in Greece, which says a party must have more than 3 percent of national votes to have representation at the European Parliament. 

“The far-right parties sued us over our remarks that we are Turks. They called for the cancellation of the June 9 elections and the repeat of the elections without the FEP Party — and even demanded the closure of our party,” Asafoglu says.

“This shows us very clearly that they want to intimidate the Turkish minority, to silence their problems and demands,” she adds.

The cases are ongoing at the Supreme Court.

According to Asafoglu, the legal action is not just directed at political leaders, with serious judicial and financial pressure, but also at Turkish mayors and the heads of Turkish institutions or boards.

The legal action came on top of existing tensions. The minority had already been facing threats and attacks, especially from the far-right neo-Nazi criminal organisation Golden Dawn.

Members of the organisation previously raided a hall in Athens where FEP Party organised an event, and Ioannis Lagos, a prominent figure of the Golden Dawn Party, had torn up a Turkish flag in the EU parliament.

Representatives of the Turkish minority have also been receiving threats from this group on social media, by phone and in other ways, says Asafoglu.

“But, of course, we will not give up on our cause and our struggle,” she tells TRT World.

No room for Turks

Greece's Western Thrace region, located in the country’s northeast near the Turkish border, is home to a substantial, long-established Turkish-Muslim minority comprising approximately a third of the population.

“We have never been a marginal community. But the Greek State has always othered us, especially those who express that they are Turks, and tried to demonise us in the eyes of the public,” laments Asafoglu.

The attitude has persisted even though the minority has remained peaceful and called for dialogue. 

Minority representative Huseyin Baltaci, Head of the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association, the Greek State has made it crystal clear that it perceives the Turkish identity as a “threat to national security”.

“You’ll notice that our association doesn’t include the word ‘Turkish’ in its name — because the word was banned,” he says, speaking to TRT World on the sidelines of the recently held Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

Beginning in the 1970s, the use of the term “Turkish” became criminalised in Greece, and in the 1980s, associations carrying the word were declared illegal.

The issue, among many others faced by the Turkish minority, was taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which ruled that Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, regarding freedom of assembly and association, had been violated.

In response, Greek lawmakers passed a new legislation in 2017 that assured ECHR rulings would be circumvented “when national security is at stake”.

“According to the Greek State, there is a Greek Muslim minority, but no Turkish minority,” says FEP Party leader Cigdem Asafoglu, stressing that the community “cannot express their identity freely.”

While Greece maintains that the community in Western Thrace is not an ethnic but a religious minority, Athens has also obstructed them from exercising their religious freedoms.

Until recently, Greece had refused to legally recognise the community’s right to elect their religious leaders, such as muftis, instead appointing state-approved clerics without any elections or consultation, including the minority.

“The Greek state wants a Muslim minority that it can rule over and control. But we, of course, do not accept that,” says Asafoglu.

Stripped of their rights 

The rights of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace were enshrined in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which guarantees their right to establish, manage and control their own religious, educational, charitable and social institutions under Article 40.

However, the Greek government has not only failed to uphold these obligations under international and bilateral agreements, but has actively obstructed the minority's efforts to exercise their rights — despite multiple rulings in their favour by the ECHR.

In recent years, Western Thrace has also become the poorest region in Greece. Members of the Turkish minority say this is the result of a deliberate state policy aimed at driving emigration and altering the region’s demographic composition.

“Unemployment among Western Thrace Turks has hit the ceiling. Single-parent families are on the rise, as fathers feel that they have to go to Germany or Europe to find work,” Huseyin Baltaci says, pointing to mounting social, cultural and economic pressures.

Since the 1920s, the Turkish minority’s population share in Western Thrace has dropped dramatically — from 65 percent to just 30 percent. Their land ownership has also dwindled from around 84 percent to 23 percent.

According to Baltaci, community members were barred from buying property or even obtaining permission to repair their homes until the 1990s. Farmers were denied driving licences for their tractors, and there were zones where the Turkish population was outright forbidden from entering.

“We won these freedoms as a result of peaceful marches and demonstrations. But despite this, the Greek State has never stopped putting pressure on us,” he adds.

Not even the minority’s children are spared.

“Unfortunately, the Iskece Turkish Secondary and High School is about to collapse, so to speak, on our children's heads, and no action is being taken,” Baltaci says. 

The community has been waiting in vain for Athens to provide a new space for the school, which is located in the Iskece district of Western Thrace and was the subject of concern after international observers found out in 2023 that the derelict building in which the students study is actually a tobacco warehouse. 

“This is happening in 2025, as a result of the pressure put on us by Greece, the so-called ‘cradle of democracy’,” Baltaci protests.

‘Severing ties’ 

Under international law, the Turkish minority in Western Thrace holds the right to receive education in their mother tongue, and their schools are granted autonomy as per their special status.

Yet, the number of Turkish schools has sharply declined — from 307 in 1926 to just 86 today. The closures, often justified on grounds such as a lack of “enough students,” have rarely been reversed, even when pupil demand was later confirmed.

Even with the presence of schools, minority representatives say their resources are not enough to meet the children’s needs — and the facilities themselves, such as the Iskece Turkish minority school, are in bad shape.

Even where schools remain open, minority representatives say they are severely under-resourced and unable to meet children’s educational needs. Many facilities, like the Iskece minority school, are in a state of disrepair.

Despite repeated appeals to Greek authorities, most applications for improvements or new facilities have been left unanswered. In cases where they are approved, no meaningful action follows.

These policies are widely viewed as part of a broader assimilation strategy — one that pressures families to send their children to Greek schools, where instruction is not offered in Turkish.

“We fear that in the coming years, there will be no more Turkish schools in Western Thrace,” says Baltaci, adding that Greece has been trying to sever their ties with their mother tongue, and their motherland.

“We are not being integrated, but assimilated, and disappearing from our geography,” he tells TRT World.

But the minority still has hope for the future.

“If we lose hope, we would also lose our determination to resist oppression. So, we always hold out hope,” says Asafoglu, adding that the Western Thrace Turks are raising a brilliant, promising new generation despite all adversities.

Double standards

Despite holding equal rights under the Treaty of Lausanne and bilateral agreements, the Turkish minority in Western Thrace has faced increasing restrictions in recent years — a stark contrast to the Greek minority in Türkiye, whose protections have largely remained intact.

According to Western Thrace Turkish Minority leader Cigdem Asafoglu, the disconnect between diplomacy and domestic implementation remains a major concern.

“There may be a normalisation of relations between Greece and Türkiye, but unfortunately, the Greek State has not reflected this on the Turkish minority in Western Thrace,” she says, underlining that Türkiye, as the minority’s kin state and official guarantor under the Lausanne Treaty, has continuously provided support.

Adding that the Turkish minority is grateful for Ankara’s consistent advocacy, Asafoglu says they are expecting the same level of care and dialogue from their own country, Greece.

The community demands that authorities recognise their Turkish identity, without othering or mislabeling them as a security issue, and engage in direct consultations with the minority before implementing decisions that affect them.

“Turks in Western Thrace want to live as regular European citizens, expressing their identities freely and confidently, receiving proper education. They want to live humanely,” concludes Asafoglu.