Assessment for Muslims in Greece

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Risk Assessment | Analytic Summary | References

Risk Assessment

It is unlikely that the Turks in Greece will begin to use militant strategies in attempting to improve their position in Greek society. This has not been a strategy that has been used in the past, and the group lacks the organization to plan such a strategy. Additionally, there has been an improvement in relations between both the Turks and Greeks inside Greece, and between the Greek and Turkish governments. As a result of the mutual cooperation between the two countries after each was hit by a destructive earthquake the two countries have opened up a new dialogue. This 'earthquake diplomacy' has not removed the prejudice that exists among the populations, but there is a new willingness to consider some change.

The group does possess the risk factors that tend to lead to protest: political and economic discrimination, support from organized kindred groups, and a fairly new democracy. It is therefore likely that protests will continue, and possibly escalate. If the Turks in Greece organize to a greater degree, then the possibility of further protests is enhanced.

Other facts indicate that tensions between Muslims and Orthodox Greeks have the potential to increase. The thousands of Muslims currently living in Western Thrace as noncitizens were greatly disadvantaged by the 19th Amendment of the Greek Citizenship Law. Although the 19th Amendment is no longer in effect, its past implementation by Greek authorities stripped the rights of citizenship from a large segment of the Turkish population, and thousands of these non-citizen natives now live as second class citizens.

A separate, neglected school system in the poor Muslim region also contributes to inequality of opportunity.

Muslims outside of Thrace, or non-Turkish Muslims in the general population face a different situation from Turkish Muslims. While they are still forced to identify their religion on their identity cards, the way other Muslims do, and are subject to the same forms of discrimination, they do not enjoy the same protections under the Treaty of Lausanne. There has been little improvement, therefore, for recent immigrants to Greece, including the large Albanian and Pakistani communities. For example, the capital city of Athens continues to harbor a large population of Muslim immigrants without the benefit of an official mosque.

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Analytic Summary

Under the treaty of Lausanne, which ended the Greco-Turkish war in 1923, ethnic Greeks in Turkey and ethnic Turks in Greece were exchanged to be reunited with their kinsmen. However, an exception was made for Turks living in the area of Thrace and Greeks living in Istanbul. As a result the Turk minority is concentrated in this area of Greece (GROUPCON = 3). While not considered to be racially different from the Greek population (RACE = 0), the group does speak Turkish, not Greek (LANG = 1). They have different traditions and customs, (CUSTOM = 1), and what has been historically most important, they are Muslim, not Greek Orthodox (BELIEF = 3). Due to their concentration and the history of animosity between Greeks and Turks, the group is highly cohesive. It should be noted that there are other Muslims in Greece, found mainly in the Dedocanese Islands, but they have assimilated into Greek culture, with only their religion being different from the majority.

The Turks have endured and continue to endure discrimination and prejudice in most aspects of life in Greece from both the government and the population as a whole. The Turks only face minimal demographic disadvantages, due primarily to their higher birth rate compared to the Greeks, but there are problems in the number of people moving from the country to urban areas. Additionally, the Greek government helps Greeks to obtain land from Turks, mainly through providing low interest loans, while restricting the purchase and sale of property by Turks. While there have been remedial policies in some areas, they are not sufficient to offset societal discrimination (POLDIS06 = 3). Today, while Turks do play an important role in local politics in western Thrace, their participation in national politics is limited. In recent years, however, Turks have been elected to the national Parliament. While Islamic candidates are generally on the ballots of the major parties, few of them are elected. All citizens in Greece must have their religious affiliation on their identification, which makes the Turks easily identifiable, and a target for discrimination. There are also social restrictions on Turks gaining employment in the police force and in the military.

Culturally, there has also been a considerable amount of neglect for Greece's mosques which have been allowed to deteriorate or to be converted for other uses. Also, the Greek government retains and exercises the right to appoint official religious leaders (muftis) for its Islamic population. The Muslim minority has received support from the Turkish government on the mufti issue, as well as monetary support from the Saudi Arabian government to fund “religious outreach programs.” (STAMATSUP04-06 = 1).

The group also faces discrimination in education. It is difficult to find teachers trained in Turkish, and the Turkish students have a poor command of Greek, which hurts them economically. However, allegations of discrimination in education have been moderated thanks to a positive 0.5% quota on Muslims entering elite universities, (ECDIS06 = 1). There are allegations that the Greeks obstruct the entry of teachers and educational materials from Turkey as well as what is considered to be the unjust closings of primary schools in several villages. Despite positive gains, Turks do face societal discrimination. The Turks are denied jobs and other economic opportunities because they are Turkish, and as a result they are excluded from the economy. There is informal discrimination in the obtaining of building permits, tractor licenses and other documents necessary to start and/or run a small business or practice certain professions. Basic services in Turkish areas are also insufficient.

The Turks face governmental repression in the form of police surveillance, which was a divisive issue leading up to the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. On the other hand, there is no record of intercommunal violence comparable to that under the past regime, although a legal dispute concerning an alleged religious insult by a Greek television crew caused concern in 2004 (INTERCON04 = 1).

Turks are primarily represented by the Western Thrace Solidarity Association. Turkish politicians can also be found in most of the major political parties, and these individuals have attempted to advocate for the group. Also, the Turkish government has provided encouragement and pressure on the Greek government over the Turks’ treatment. Other non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch also monitor the minority’s situation and disseminate information.

The group demands greater participation in politics at the state level, as the low number of Turkish representatives does not reflect the overall population distribution. Of the 300-member national Parliament, only one Muslim obtained a seat in the 2004 election. The group also demands equal rights with the rest of the Greek population, which would include improvements in the infrastructure and educational institutions of Western Thrace. The introduction of Greek as a second language in many Turkish schools should help Turks compete for better paying jobs in the future.

Finally, the group wants to ensure the protection of their culture and way of life. This objective is challenged by the government’s ban on any reference to a Turkish ethnic minority. The January, 2005 Supreme Court decision to uphold a ban on the Turkish Union of Xanthi (founded in 1946) marked the suppression of a third major Turkish organization in Greece. Two previous "Turkish" groups were targeted on account of the use of “Turkish” within each group's name. Recognition of a Turkish ethnic minority is a politically explosive, culturally divisive issue. Parliament claims that the Union "endangers national security" by proclaiming to have common interests with Turkey, a foreign nation and traditional rival. Thus, the idea of curtailing legal bias against the Western Thracian Muslims is considered an ongoing attempt to end discrimination. Amnesty International and a number of Turkish human rights organizations based in Greece protested this governmental decree, (PROT04-06 = 1).

Considering that the Turks have been in the region for a long period it is somewhat surprising that the first organized protests did not occur until the late 1980s (PROT85X = 3). Since then the group has continued to lobby the government, although without any organizations, this protest has usually taken the form of verbal opposition, which is rarely reported in the media (PROT01-03 = 1). Only in 1995 was there ever any activity which could be classified as militant (REB95 = 1), and since then no further activity has been reported. (REB06 = 0)

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References

Couloumbis, Theodore A. The United States, Greece and Turkey: The Troubled Triangle, Praeger, 1983.

LexisNexis. Various news reports. 1990-2006.

Madianou, Mirca. May 2005. "Contested communicative spaces: rethinking identities, boundaries, and the role of media among Turkish speakers in Greece." Journal of Ethnic and Migration studies.

Shinn, Rinn S. Greece: A Country Study, Washington DC: American University, 1985.

US Department of State. 1999-2006. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Greece. Available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/.

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