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   XPost: soc.culture.greek, soc.culture.turkish   
      
   Ethnic Turks have resided in Thrace since at least the fourteenth   
   century, and they are Greek citizens. In 1923, under the Treaty of   
   Lausanne, the Turkish minority of Thrace was granted a wide array of   
   rights to ensure protection of their religion, language, culture, and   
   equality before the law.1 In addition, as Greek citizens, ethnic Turks   
   also enjoy the protection of Greek law, as well as of the European   
   Convention of Human Rights.   
      
   Despite such protections, however, ethnic Turks suffer a host of human   
   rights violations. The Greek state has for the most part been unable to   
   accept the fact that one can be a loyal Greek citizen and, at the same   
   time, an ethnic Turk proud of his or her culture and religion. Turks are   
   viewed by the state with suspicion, the strength of which largely   
   reflects the state of Turkish-Greek relations.   
      
   Greece’s attitude toward the ethnic Turkish minority is nowhere more   
   evident then in its continued official denial of the Turkish identity of   
   the community. Greece only accepts the existence of a “Muslim” minority   
   in Thrace and aggressively prosecutes and bans organizations and   
   individuals who seek to call themselves “Turkish.” While it is indeed   
   true that much of the minority is of mixed ethnic origins, it   
   overwhelmingly claims an ethnic Turkish identity and wants to be   
   referred to as such. The Greek government points to the Treaty of   
   Lausanne which, it is true, speaks only of a “Muslim minority.” Past   
   state policy, however, negates such a justification. In the early 1950s,   
   during a period of rapprochement between Greece and Turkey, the Greek   
   government itself ordered the use of “Turk” and “Turkish” to refer to   
   the minority, rather than “Muslim.”   
      
   A number of discriminatory measures have been enacted either to force   
   ethnic Turks to migrate to Turkey or to disrupt community life and   
   weaken its cultural basis. The most egregious example was Article 19 of   
   the Citizenship Law, which, until it was abolished in 1998, allowed the   
   state to revoke the citizenship of non-ethnic Greeks unilaterally and   
   arbitrarily. Between 1955 and 1998, approximately 60,000 lost their   
   citizenship under the article. As a result of Article 19 and other   
   discriminatory measures, the ethnic Turkish minority today numbers   
   approximately 80-120,000.2 In 1951, forty-seven years ago, the official   
   census reported 112,665. Given an annual 2 percent growth rate, not high   
   for a poorly-educated and rural community, the Turkish minority, using   
   1951 as a base, would have been expected to number closer to 300,000 today.3   
      
   Religion has been another battleground. A 1990 law granted the state   
   wide-ranging powers in appointing the mufti, the community’s religious   
   leader who also serves as an Islamic judge in civil matters. The   
   previous law, in contrast, had allowed the community to elect the   
   muftis. In defiance of the 1990 law, which violates the intent of the   
   Treaty of Lausanne to allow the minority to manage its own religious   
   affairs, the community has continued to elect its religious leaders, who   
   have been prosecuted and imprisoned by Greek authorities. In addition,   
   the repair of mosques is sometimes blocked by state authorities, and   
   those involved in the repair are prosecuted.   
      
   The state has also struck at private charitable foundations, known as   
   Vak1flar, that support education and religious institutions. A law   
   passed in 1980 and a presidential decree issued in 1990 effectively   
   transferred management of the Vak1flar from elected committees—a right   
   assured under the Treaty of Lausanne and preceding Greek legislation—to   
   state officials, who were granted an iron hand over budgetary matters.   
   More ominously, the 1980 law struck directly at the financial holdings   
   of the foundations by ordering that any property for which an official   
   deed could not be presented would be confiscated by the state. While   
   innocuous-sounding, the regulation presented insurmountable challenges   
   to foundations that had holdings as old as 500 years.   
      
   Human rights violations in the education field affect the largest number   
   of individuals and have done the most to foster the Turkish minority’s   
   relative underdevelopment. Schools are overcrowded and poorly funded   
   compared to those attended by ethnic Greeks. The quality of teachers is   
   low. Ethnic Turks educated in Turkish universities, which the minority   
   believes are the best qualified to teach, have not been hired for a   
   number of years. On the other hand, graduates of the Thessaloniki   
   Pedagogical Academy (EPATH)—the job candidates preferred by the Greek   
   state—are poorly educated and have a weak command of Turkish.   
   Furthermore, community members claim, not without some justification,   
   that the EPATH-trained teachers act as “ideological overseers.”   
   Textbooks are decades out of date because Greece and Turkey have been   
   unable to implement a 1968 protocol that would have allowed each country   
   to supply textbooks to their respective minority. The two   
   Turkish-language high schools can provide only a fraction of the needed   
   places, resulting in a disproportionate drop-out rate. Greek officials   
   fall back on the Treaty of Lausanne, which only obligates them to   
   provide primary education in Turkish, ignoring the fact that Greek law   
   mandates a minimum of nine years of education. State repression takes   
   other forms as well. Members of the ethnic Turkish minority also   
   complain of police surveillance, discrimination in public employment,   
   and restrictions on freedom of expression. Representatives from Human   
   Rights Watch and the Greek Helsinki Monitor were trailed by police   
   operatives in Thrace while conducting research for this report. Only a   
   handful of Turks are employed by the municipal or state bureaucracies,   
   almost always in the most menial tasks. A local journalist known as a   
   community activist has become the subject of several prosecutions in an   
   effort to limit his internationally-protected right to free expression.   
      
   Despite continued human rights violations, there have been some major   
   improvements since Human Rights Watch began monitoring the situation in   
   1990. Several of the most egregious laws, such as those that deprived   
   ethnic Turks of basic rights of property and occupation, have been   
   repealed. Since our 1990 report, ethnic Turks can now buy and sell   
   houses and land, repair houses, obtain car, truck and tractor licenses,   
   and open coffee houses and machine and electrical shops. As noted   
   earlier, the government abolished Article 19 of the Citizenship Law,   
   though not retroactively. Restricted zones along the Bulgarian border   
   inhabited by members of the Turkish minority have been opened up,   
   although only to Greek citizens. There have also been efforts to improve   
   education, such as creating a quota for ethnic Turks in the state   
   university system. Finally, the 1994 decision to allow the election of   
   provincial governors and municipal councils appears to be a positive   
   step. These elected officials appear to be more responsive to the needs   
      
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