Tsipras meets PM amid confrontation over Muslim minority in Thrace

Leftist leader Alexis Tsipras has met with Greece’s interim Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas amid the confrontation between SYRIZA and New Democracy over the Muslim minority in the northern Thrace region.

Conservative officials have alleged that the May 21 election result in the constituency of Rodopi, the only one in which New Democracy failed to win a majority, was the result of propaganda and machinations by the Turkish consulate.

Following the meeting at Maximos Mansion on Monday morning, Tsipras accused New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis of exploiting the issue of the minority ahead of the new elections on June 25, adding that “it has now escalated into a major institutional and national concern.”

Tsipras also expressed his concern “regarding the targeting and blackmailing of the Greek Muslim minority in Thrace, a practice that divides the local community, polarizes it, and can lead to significant national risks.”

“In any case, this is a tactic that plays into the hands of Ankara,” he said.

The former prime minister also accused the conservatives of manipulating the National Intelligence Service (EYP) to serve their politically expedient objectives, “using targeted, fragmented information leaked to media outlets friendly to New Democracy in order to create certain impressions.”

“The Muslim community in Thrace, and especially Turkish influence, cannot be addressed through targeting or division. It can only be addressed through the consolidation and reinforcement of equality and equal representation, based on the decisions jointly made in the special cross-party committee established in 2020,” Tsipras said.

There are some 120,000 Muslims living in Greek Thrace. Under the Lausanne Treaty, Greece recognizes the existence of a Muslim, but not ethnic, minority in Thrace.