Athens rebuffs Cavusoglu’s comments on Muslim minority

Athens on Tuesday rebuffed comments by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who referred to the Muslim minority in Western Thrace as a “Turkish minority.”

“In Greece, which is the historical cradle of democracy but also a modern European democratic state, there is… only one minority: the Muslim minority,” diplomatic sources said, adding that the members of the community live as equal citizens under the law.

“One only has to read the Treaty of Lausanne to realize this,” the source said referring to the 1923 agreement that set out the modern borders between Greece and Turkey.

Cavusoglu had earlier criticized Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos for speaking of the area’s Muslim minority during a visit to Thrace on Sunday.

“Whatever you say, Western Thrace’s Turkish minority has been Turkish for centuries, it will remain Turkish..!” he tweeted.