Greece dismisses accusations of Muslim rights violations

Greek Foreign Ministry sources on Wednesday dismissed the accusations of a Turkish government official who claimed that the country is violating the rights of its large Muslim minority, saying the community is “flourishing.”

The comment came after visiting Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran accused Greek authorities of curbing the religious and linguistic freedoms of the Muslim population there, which he called “Turkish.”

“Greece remains firmly committed to its international obligations, fully respecting international law, which is a compass of its foreign policy,” the sources said, adding that it implements the provisions of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which recognizes the existence of a religious Muslim minority in Thrace, in northern Greece.

“The Muslim minority, which is flourishing, numbers about 120,000 inhabitants, Greek citizens,” the same sources added. “Any attempt to distort reality and falsify this information, wherever it comes from, is self-evidently dismissible and needs no further comment.”