GREECE REBUFFS TURKISH CRITICISM OVER MUSLIM MINORITY TREATMENT

Agence France Presse — English
September 17, 2006 Sunday 9:16 PM GMT

Greece on Sunday rebuffed Turkish claims that Athens is violating the
rights of the Muslim minority living along its northeastern border,
telling Ankara that it should instead concentrate on human rights
reforms at home.

"Turkey…has undertaken the obligation to meet specific conditions
and commitments before the European Union," the Greek foreign ministry
said in a statement.

On Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Greece
should respect the right of its Muslim minority to elect its own
religious leader, known as a mufti, or risk reciprocal measures
from Ankara.

"If Greece respects its own minority rights and has expectations
from Turkey on this issue, then its should also fulfill its own
obligations," Erdogan told an assembly of Turks from northeastern
Greece, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"This issue must be resolved. If not, there are things Turkey could
do under the principle of reciprocity," he said.

The issue arose after the recent death of Mehmet Emin Aga, a senior
ethnic Turkish Muslim who for years acted as mufti to the Muslim
minority in the face of opposition from the Greek authorities, who
nominated a rival mufti.

Greek courts convicted Emin Aga repeatedly in the past decade
for illegally acting as a mufti, leading to protests from the
international human rights group Amnesty International and Greek
rights organisations.

Erdogan on Saturday charged that Greece’s treatment of its Muslim
minority of about 100,000, which lives in the northeastern Thrace
region bordering Turkey, amounted to a violation of the human rights
criteria of the European Union of which it is a member.

"Our aim is to allow our kinsmen to benefit from their rights under
bilateral and international agreements as respected and equal citizens
of Greece," the prime minister said.

On Sunday, the Greek foreign ministry said Athens treated all its
citizens equally, and accused Ankara of seeking excuses to disguise
the sluggishness noted in its EU-mandated reforms.

Turkey itself is under pressure from the European Union, with which it
began membership talks last year, to improve the rights of minorities,
including its sizeable Kurdish community and non-Muslims.

Predominantly Muslim Turkey is home to small groups of Jews and
Christians, mainly Orthodox Greeks and Armenians, most of them
concentrated in Istanbul.

Istanbul is also home to the The Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate,
which represents the 250 million Orthodox worshippers in the world.

Ankara plays no part in the elections of the patriarch, but refuses to
recognise the patriarchate’s ecumenical title and says it represents
only Orthodox Greeks in Turkey.