When the ostrich sees something scary, it buries its head into the ground. When the Greek State is faced with the problems of the 80-120,000 Turkish minority people, it turns away and denies their existence.

Two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its report on The Turks of Western Thrace. In it, the organization makes an in-depth analysis of the current problems and developments faced by the minority. This is a follow-up to two earlier HRW reports, Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Greece (August 1990) and Greece: Improvements for the Turkish Minority: Problems Remain (April 1992).

The official position in Greece is that there are no minorities in the territory of the country, except for the Muslim religious minority. Identifying the minority or its establishments as "Turkish" is considered illegal and may lead to prosecution. On November 6, 1998 the Komotini Appeals Court reviewed the Turkish Union of Xanthi's appeal against its dissolution on such grounds. In July 1998, primary school teacher Rasim Hint was suspended for one year because, in 1996, he called the Xanthi School he worked in a "Turkish" rather than a "minority" one. For the same reason, Hint was subjected to punitive transfers from the city of Xanthi to distant mountain villages between 1996-1998.

The minority itself sees the non-recognition of its ethnic identity as the biggest obstacle for a future reconciliation and good relations with the Greek State and society. Mr. Birol Akifoglu, a Turkish minority deputy from the New Democracy party, clearly stated that "We are first Greek citizens. Our religion and ethnic identity should not be the reason that they see us as second class citizens. All of the minority is Turkish and the differentiations that are being made (Romas, Muslims, Pomaks) do not derive from the minority itself and consequently are not recognized by it."

Sometimes the 'bureaucratic ostrich' becomes rather active and interferes directly in the minority's affairs. The best example of this is the interference in the appointment of Muftis (religious leaders). Regardless of the fact that the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) grants the Turkish minority the right to organize and conduct its own religious affairs, since 1985 the government has directly appointed -against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of ethnic Turks- the community's religious leaders. This situation was codified in the December 1990 Law No. 1920.

Currently, there are two muftis in Xanthi and Komotini - one appointed and one elected. The elected muftis have been repeatedly convicted for "pretense of authority" for merely using the title of mufti in written statements. The Xanthi one, Mehmet Emin Aga, has accumulated 82 months of prison in nine trials since June 1996. He has served six months and bought off the other sentences. Since December 1997 he has got 72 months of prison (16 months on December 11, 1997, 14 months on February 25, 1998, six months on April 29, seven months on May 28, 14 months on June 24, eight months on November 5, and seven moths on December 14).

The Greek state has also interfered in the administration of the Vakiflar (private charitable foundations) used to support education, minority activities and social welfare. Law No. 1091 (1980) and Presidential Decree No. 1 (1991) both limit the Turkish community's control over the Vakiflar, and financially weaken the latter. Similar are the problems related to the repairing and building of mosques.

As regards the construction or repair of mosques, the situation has improved since 1992. However, the minority still has to overcome a lot of bureaucratic obstacles before obtaining construction permits. Sometimes there is open state prosecution as in the case of the Kimmeria mosque. The latter's construction was started in September 1996, as soon as a building permit for "an annex to a mosque" was granted. Soon after, there were protests from ultra nationalists, which resulted in the December 1996 arrest of 23 individuals for "arbitrary construction with violations." The sentences given ranged from 35 to four months and were all suspended on appeal. In mid-1997, the imam was allowed to finish the repair of the mosque, though not to build the new minaret to the desired height.

Official Greek statistics show that there are 230 minority primary schools with 8,500 students; two minority junior high schools with 200 students; two minority senior high schools with 400 students; and two Muslim religious schools (Medrese) with 200 students. The overwhelming majority of Turkish minority children attend the above-mentioned schools where the curriculum is bilingual - in Greek and Turkish. The schools are usually privately owned. In practice, however, the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs controls their activities as regards the appointment of teachers, distributing of textbooks and building and repairing schools. Many minority representatives claim that the teachers at these schools are not very well qualified. Moreover, the Turkish language schoolbooks used date form the 1950s, while the Greek language ones are not adapted to the fact that Greek is the pupils' second if not third language. So, when they reach high school they are inadequately prepared and have high failure rates. Even more, minority children have difficulties continuing their education at prestigious Greek universities, in which they matriculate on the basis of a special quota for them.

As a consequence from the above comes the next problem of the Turks in Greece. Their low educational level prevents them from getting good jobs. However, open state discrimination is an even more important factor behind that. Even though in September 1997, state-appointed secretary general of Thrace, Mr. Stavros Kambellis, admitted that there is widespread employment discrimination against the minority, the situation is largely the same today.

Minority individuals also feel the pressure coming from the Greek State. Turkish community leaders report being under clandestine police surveillance. Birol Akifoglu, a New Democracy MP, claims that police officials called him to inquire when he was meeting with HRW and Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) representatives conducting their interviews in September 1997. Mr. Mehmet Emin Aga, the elected mufti of Xanthi, claims that the police follow him on a regular basis. The HRW/GHM team experienced such surveillance first hand in Thrace in September 1997. The three were followed for two days in the area around Komotini by two separate Greek security organizations. Only after they complained to uniformed police officials and Interior Ministry officials were the police tails removed. Given state suspicion of the ethnic Turkish minority, such surveillance is not surprising.

Suspicion is the driving force behind the government's desire to restrict expression as well. Abdulhalim Dede was charged with illegal operation of his Turkish-language radio station, Isik (Light), based in Komotini. In Greece all private radio stations are forced to operate without a license because of the failure of authorities to issue proper licenses, but Mr. Dede was the only individual prosecuted. The case ended in acquittal. He was though sentenced to sixth months in prison for libel of a nationalist by his now defunct Turkish-language newspaper, Trakya'nin Sesi (Voice of Thrace). Then, on September 2, 1998, Dede was sentenced by the Xanthi court to eight months in prison for trying to install a radio antenna for Radio Isik in his back yard.

The above facts paint a rather gruesome picture of a suspicious and scared Greece. They suggest that preconceived notions and frustrations will not be easily overcome. Still, there is a spark of hope for the future. It comes from the historical decision of June 11, 1998 with which Greece abolished Article 19 of its 1955 Citizenship Code (No. 3370). Article 19 was used arbitrarily to deprive non-ethnic Greeks of their citizenship if they settled abroad. The Greek Government admitted that between 1955 and 1998, approximately 60,000 Greek citizens, mostly ethnic Turks, had been deprived of their citizenship. Some 7,182 of these people lost their citizenship between 1981 and 1997.

As many as 1,000 of such former Greek citizens still live in Greece as stateless (Deputy Foreign Minister Yannos Kranidiotis gave the GHM an estimate of 500, on October 27, 1998). They had been denied their rights under the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons ratified by Greece in 1975. In January 1998, after sustained pressure by GHM, other NGOs, as well as minority leaders, the state finally gave to some 150 stateless 'ghosts' identity documents which allowed them to enjoy many other rights and also to travel abroad. However, in August and September 1998, the government refused again to issue such documents to other stateless, in direct breach of the law. Moreover, the abolition of Article 19 was not retroactive: so these people did not get their citizenship back, although the revocation was illegal in the first place as they had not settled abroad. They are probably the only residents of a traditional democracy rendered stateless by their own country.