Erdogan attacks Greece over Muslim minority rights

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Greece of undermining the rights of the Muslim minority in the country’s northeastern Thrace region.

“The unfair and unlawful practices against the Muslim Turkish minority in Greece continue increasingly,” Erdogan told a gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) in Istanbul.

“The religious leaders of our brothers in Greece are not recognized, their foundations and property are seized, they are not allowed to teach their mother tongue, and their identities are denied,” he said.

“We must not remain silent to Athens’ [abuses],” he said, while urging support for the Turkish-Cypriot breakaway state in the occupied north of the Mediterranean island.

Greece recognizes the existence of a Muslim minority in Thrace.