Turkey strongly criticized Greece for violating the Treaty of Lausanne and the rights of Muslims.
The office of the President of Turkey, by publishing a statement, accused Greece of violating the historic Treaty of Lausanne and the rights of the country’s Muslim minority.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Greece on Sunday for violating an agreement that has existed between the two countries for more than a century.
According to the Associated Press report, Erdogan accused Athens of undermining the rights of the Muslim minority in the Thrace region of Greece in a statement released on the occasion of the 99th anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty. The Muslims of Taras make up about 32% of the population of this province and are made up of Turkic, Romani and Bulgarian-speaking Pomaks.
The President of Turkey said in this statement; “The terms of the treaty, especially the rights of the Turkish minority, have been ignored or deliberately destroyed. “It is not possible for our country to accept this situation, which is incompatible with good neighborliness and loyalty to the text of the treaty.”
The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne was signed by the new Republic of Turkey to settle disputes with the Allies, including Greece, after World War I and the Turkish Wars of Independence.
In this document, the rights of the Muslim minority in Greece and Christians in Turkey are emphasized. This treaty also determined the terms of Greek rule over the Aegean islands off the coast of Turkey.
In recent months, Ankara has accused Greece of militarizing the islands and violating this agreement. Athens, however, claims that it acts according to international laws and defends its territory against Turkey’s continuous hostility.
