Turkish FM urges Greece to grant Muslim minority rights

Rasa - Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has urged Greece to "grant the Turkish-Muslim minority in Western Thrace their rights."

News ID: 1824

Date: 15 December 2014 - 01:16

RNA - The minister's comments came Friday during a meeting with the Turkish community living in the city of Komotini.

"This is Turkey's biggest request from Greece," Çavuşoğlu said, adding that the Turkish-Muslim community in Western Thrace constituted in fact "a bridge of peace between the two countries, just like the Greek community in Turkey".

Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey respected the rights of the Greek Orthodox community in the country, but that this practice was unfortunately not reciprocated by Greece.

"Greece is doing just the opposite, both with the legislation it approves and in its practices. This is not fair," he said.

Çavuşoğlu said that the two governments could differ on various policies, but the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights were non-negotiable, and had to be respected.

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