EU election results: 'Ethnic Turks are here in Western Thrace'

In the European Parliament (EP) elections held on Sunday, the Friendship, Equality and Peace (FEP) Party, established by the ethnic Turks in Greece, has secured a majority in two out of three districts of Western Thrace.

With 36 percent of votes in Rodop and 27 percent in Xanthi, the FEP has once again established its preeminence in these areas.

In both the 2014 and 2019 EP elections,the party won the majority in two out of three prefectures of Western Thrace. For the first time this year, it also received votes in all electoral districts of Greece.

“We are slowly moving beyond Western Thrace and progressing steadily towards being able to engage in politics nationwide,” Cigdem Asafoglu, the leader of the FEP Party, tells TRT World.

Despite far-right threats to shut down the party, and speeches implying that the FEP poses a danger to Greece’s national security, the party is making the voices of ethnic minorities in Greece heard via elections.

However, their success was not enough to send them to the EP, as they failed to cross the 3 percent national electoral threshold.

Origin of the 3 percent threshold

“The 3 percent threshold is antidemocratic, and was made solely to be imposed on the FEP Party,” Asafoglu says.

It was legislated and implemented by the government of the time in Greece after Sadik Ahmet, a doctor of Turkish origin in Western Thrace, was elected as an independent MP in the 1989 general elections, with a high number of votes.

Meant both for political parties and independent candidates, the 3 percent threshold initially aimed to hinder Ahmet’s re-election.

Known for his struggle for the rights of the ethnic Turks in Western Thrace, Sadik Ahmet is the founder of FEP Party which was established in September 1991.

With the threshold in place, he failed to enter the Parliament in the 1993 elections. But it clawed its way back in reckoning over time, and continues to carry on with the slogan: “we are here as ethnic Turks”.

The far-right threat

The June 9 EP elections marked the rise of far-right parties across Europe, including the Greek Solution that recorded a 4.18 percent increase in vote share, 494798with 9.72 percent of the votes overall.

The ruling New Democracy party remains the leader, although its vote share has decreased to 27.7 percent, compared to the 41 percent it had garnered in the July 2023 legislative elections.

This means falling behind its 2019 EP vote share record of 33 percent, which was set under the leadership of then PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The main opposition Syriza party followed the Greek PM’s party with a 14.9 percent vote share, as the socialist Pasok party came third with 13.03 percent. But the conservative Greek Solution has now become the fourth largest party.

Referring to past incidents, Asafoglu talks about how the far-right damages the cause of ethnic minorities in Greece.

It began with Sadik Ahmet’s car being stolen in 2015 by extreme right-wing individuals. The car was later involved in an accident, in which Ahmet lost his life.

Then in 2016, the far-right Golden Dawn Party attacked an event organised by the FEP Party. SInce then, it has downed shutters to its headquarters, after it lost all its parliamentary seats in 2019.

“They (far-right) keep talking about the need to shut down our party. They insist that there are no Turks living in Greece, and that anyone who identifies as Turkish or feels Turkish, should move to Turkey,” Asafoglu says. She expresses that instead, they want to identify the ethnic Turks as Greek Muslims.

“How they view us is very troubling, as this idea influences the public. They say things like “they (Turks) are dangerous, they shouldn't be here, they shouldn't engage in official political activities’,” she further says, adding that through this, they create an environment of impending war in the country.

According to Asafoglu, the root of this rise of the right-wing are the existing problems faced by Greece, whether it be with a breakdown in rule of law, trust deficit in government rising from incidents of phone-tapping of politicians, the 2023 train accident that killed many. By focussing on sectarian issues, the right-wing extremists obscure these real problems, he adds.

Denial of Turkish identity

Although Greece’s ethnic Turks has been facing chronic problems for years, nothing much has changed.

One of these problems is related to the appointment of muftis. The Greek State calls the muftis chosen by Turks as “pirate muftis” and appoints their own muftis according to criteria they have set. There is currently one appointed to Evros, one to Xhanti, and another one to Rodop.

However, all these muftis appointed by the Greek government in Western Thrace have been rejected by the people, as they did not represent their choices.

“When the appointed mufti enters the mosque to lead a prayer, no congregation forms behind him,” Asafoglu explains.

Another problem is related to the properties of Turkish foundations in Western Thrace, as the Greek State appoints people to manage their finances. “These expenditures are hidden from the Turkish community. There is no transparency whatsoever,” says Asafoglu.

Regarding education, Asafoglu shares how the number of minority Turkish schools have fallen to 90 today, from the 307 that existed after the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923. In most cases, minority elementary schools are closed down under the pretext of a shortage of children.

“However, even if there is one child, because it is a minority elementary school and has a special status, it should remain open,” Asafoglu says, adding, “Every child must receive primary education, especially in their mother tongue.”

According to Asafoglu, all these problems are rooted in one underlying factor — denial of the identity of people of Turkish origin by the State in Western Thrace.

Greek political parties acknowledge that there is a minority there but do not define them as Turks. They call them the Muslim minority, or even go so far as to calling them Greek Muslim minority, claiming that they are only a religious minority, not an ethnic one.

This is challenged by the ethnic Turks and the FEP Party, as the community says they have always been living in these lands, and were only accorded the identity of a Greek minority after the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

Election results say “We are here”

As the Greek political parties do not address the problems of the ethnic Turks in Western Thrace, the success of FEP is very important, she says.

“Through electoral success, the people of Western Thrace are saying, ‘We are here, we have our problems’. Until now, you haven't been able to come up with solutions to our problems here. You must now accept our existence and consult us, take our opinion into account in decisions concerning us," she adds.

The FEP Party has now become the leading party in Xanthi and Rhodope, leaving behind the ruling party by significant margins. “It’s an indication that it is recognised as the political representative of the ethnic Turks of Western Thrace, its main political entity,” says Asafoglu.

Unfortunately, there is no will in the Greek State to cooperate or compromise, as it is not yet ready to abandon its policy regarding the ethnic Turks.