Ankara’s ‘À La Carte’ Justice: What Propaganda Hides on Minority Waqfs
The European Court of Human Rights unanimously condemned Turkey for arbitrarily excluding Greek Orthodox priests from minority institution boards, a ruling Ankara defenders are misrepresenting as an injustice.
However, before the ink on the decision had even dried, well-known mouthpieces of Ankara in Thrace rushed to instrumentalize the event. Through inflammatory publications, such as that by the Director of the newspaper Birlik, İlhan Tahsin, an attempt is being made to construct an absurd narrative that labels Turkey’s judicial defeat as… “an injustice against Western Thrace.” This is a crude political fraud and a selective sensitivity that has nothing to do with true justice.
The Historical Reality That the “Plants” “Forget”
It is at the very least provocative for a side representing a state that is a systematic violator of human rights to wag its finger at Greece. Those who today appear as belated “defenders of the vakıfs” conspicuously avoid mentioning the dramatic historical reality experienced by the Greeks of Constantinople:
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The September Pogrom of 1955 (the organized pogrom against Greek properties and churches).
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The mass and violent expulsions of 1964.
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The arbitrary closure of the Theological School of Halki.
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The wholesale confiscations and seizures of the properties of the Greek community.
These were not “administrative missteps,” but a systematic state policy of extermination that transformed a thriving community of hundreds of thousands of people into a tiny minority of a few thousand elderly. This is the true picture of Turkish “sensitivity” toward minorities.
The Comparison That Exposes the Propaganda
The attempt to equate Constantinople with Thrace collapses under its own facts. While the Greeks in Turkey were led to the brink of extinction, in Western Thrace the Muslim Minority thrives, develops and enjoys full equality and equal citizenship, within the framework of a European state governed by the rule of law.
| Comparison Area | Greek Minority in Turkey | Muslim Minority in Thrace |
| Population Evolution | Shrinkage from 120,000 to fewer than 3,000 citizens. | Steady development and prosperity (over 120,000 citizens). |
| Religious Freedom | Exclusion of priests, closure of schools, bureaucratic strangulation. | Free operation of hundreds of mosques, public recognition of holidays. |
| Political Representation | Zero possibility of autonomous political influence. | Election of Muslim MPs, mayors and councillors. |
| Property Management | Wholesale confiscation and disappearance of community vakıfs. | Institutional regulations by the Greek state to restructure debts. |
The Trap of Terminology and Ankara’s “Double Game”
The obsessive reference by consular circles to a “Turkish minority” in Thrace is neither innocent nor accidental. The Treaty of Lausanne explicitly and exclusively recognizes a Muslim religious minority, which consists of different components (Pomaks, Roma and ethnic Turks) with distinct histories and cultural characteristics.
Ankara’s attempt to collectively baptize all these people as “Turks” is part of a long-term strategy of national manipulation. It is the same Ankara that:
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Constantly raises issues of “self-administration” for the minority in Rhodope and Evros.
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Is condemned at the same time by the ECHR because it denies its own Greek Orthodox citizens the elementary right to administer their schools and churches.
The absolute hypocrisy: Those who demand “respect for rights” from Athens remain provocatively silent about the illegal invasion and occupation of Cyprus, about the persecution of Kurds, about the thousands of political prisoners inside Turkey and about the muzzling of the domestic press.
Conclusion
Regarding the vakıfs of Thrace, the Greek state always acts institutionally, within a European legal framework, seeking transparency and the resolution of chronic financial problems, far from logics of clientelist servicing.
Greece, as a modern European democracy, obviously can and must continuously improve. However, it will not accept lessons in democracy and human rights from Ankara and its domestic mechanisms. The Rule of Law does not function à la carte. History does not expire, truth cannot be falsified and orchestrated propaganda cannot be baptized as a “struggle for rights.”
The speed with which consular mechanisms attempted to transform a clear, unanimous European condemnation of Turkey into an “indictment” against Greece provokes amusement. The ECHR decision tears away the veil of Ankara’s supposed legitimacy. For Mr. Tahsin to invoke the “scales of Strasbourg” for Thrace, when his homeland holds the top position in convictions for human rights violations, constitutes a tunnel of political absurdity. Thrace represents a model of harmonious coexistence and the European acquis, however much this annoys those who are nourished by artificial tension.
Source: TAXIARCHISpress
