Continuity and Change in the Minority Policies of Greece and Turkey (original) (raw)
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Libra Publisher, 2019
What influences the political representation of minorities? Does a non-core group pursue a certain pattern of collective political behavior, or does it have the ability to alter it through struggle with other groups by calculating the existing opportunities and restrictions? This book addresses these important questions by focusing on the history of political representation of the Muslim-Turkish minority in Greece and the Greek-Orthodox minority in Turkey, two communities whose rights are linked to each other via the “reciprocity principle” written in the Lausanne Treaty, signed by two countries that have long-lasting conflicts. Drawing on presentation of related political history, systematic coding of parliamentary debates and works, minority and mainstream newspapers, and elite interviews, the author analyzes and explains ignored linkages between institutions, bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey, and the role of external factors that enable or constrain minority communities’ access to political life. This study which adopts a historical institutionalism approach and, by integrating theory of both comparative politics and international relations, shows how the minority groups’ political participation and the effectiveness of their representation has been determined by the triangle of the two states’ choice of nationalism, reciprocity and Europeanization policies, mainly argues that internal factors such as groups’ capability for competition and institutional features of the political system in the host-state mostly override states’ bilateral relations with the kin-state and international factors. As a result, for the Greek and Turkish case, the host-states generally pursue the policy of state-controlled involvement of their minorities in the political life, where the existence of the threatening kin-state and minority groups’ strong demographic features lead to avoidance of full assimilation and exclusion from political representation.
A Tale of Reciprocity: Minority Foundations in Greece and Turkey
TESEV Publications , 2010
The word most frequently uttered by Greece and Turkey with regard to their Muslim and non-Muslim minorities, respectively, is most probably ‘reciprocity.’ For more than half a century, in both countries, virtually all administrations,irrespective of their political leanings and ideological base, resorted to the good old ‘reciprocity argument’ to legitimize their laws, policies, and practices restricting the minority rights of Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Both states have for decades justified their policies on the basis of a theory that argues that Article 45 of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne provided the legal basis for reciprocity. Deliberately distorting a crystal-clear provision, which simply confers parallel obligations on Greece and Turkey for the protection of the Muslim and non-Muslim minorities, respectively, both states have for decades held their own citizens hostage, pitting them against each other in the name of defeating the other in foreign policy. Disregarding the objections of international lawyers and institutions that the reciprocity principle does not apply to human rights treaties and that states cannot condition the protection of the fundamental rights of their citizens on the policies of other states, both Greece and Turkey have successfully manipulated their national public opinion into believing in the legitimacy of treating minorities as lesser citizens. This report analyzes the implications of reciprocity policies on the day-to-day lives of Muslim and non-Muslim minorities in Greece and Turkey, specifically their impact on the community foundations2 belonging to these minorities. With a specific focus on the property and self-management issues of Muslim and non-Muslim community foundations in Greece and Turkey, the report situates the issue in its historical context and trace the evolution of the ‘community foundation issue’ from Lausanne to the present day. Drawing similarities and differences between the laws, policies, and practices of Greek and Turkish states vis-à-vis their minority foundations, the report critically assesses the progress made to this day as well as identify the outstanding issues.
Unwelcome Citizens:Muslim Turks of Greece and Orthodox Greeks of Turkey
Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 2009
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of Muslim Turkish minority in Greece and the Greek Orthodox minority in Turkey in the course of nation-state making from 1924 until today. Greece and Turkey are two neighbouring nation-states created upon the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Yet, harboring two ethnic minorities reminiscent of the past Ottoman period-the Muslim Turks of Greece and the Greek Orthodox of Turkey-stood for both as an impediment in their nation-state making project. For his reason and especially until the final decade, both minorities were regarded as potential threats to the national unity and security of these states. Hence they have become victims of bilateral issues of conflict between Greece and Turkey. Brubaker's theoretical framework of ethnic relations model, the 'triadic nexus'; which links the minority communities themselves, the states in which they live, and their external homelands, is adopted in this paper in order to offer an in-depth analysis of Greek and Turkish minority policies and their implications for both minorities until the final decade. For the period post 1995 until today, though, Sata's 'quadratic nexus', which incorporates the fourth factor of 'international organizations', in this case particularly the European Union, is used to elucidate the positive change in both states' minority policies.
Turkey and Turkish/Muslim Minorities in Greece and Bulgaria (1923-1938)
This thesis examined how Turkish perception of insecurity, which was based on its suspicions about Greek and Bulgarian intentions and politics towards its territorial integrity and stability of its regime, shaped its view of Turkish/Muslim minorities living in these two states in the early Republican period. Using a wealth of archival material and newspapers, it questioned to what extent these physical and ideological concerns of the Turkish Republic played a role in its approach to these minorities in the period between 1923 and 1938. Turkey perceived the Greek and Bulgarian maltreatment of these minorities as a part of these states’ hostile intentions regarding the new Turkish state. Thus, what this thesis argued is that Turkey responded to pressure on Turkish/Muslim minorities in these two states not only because of humanitarian concerns but according to its security concern, which became an important factor to determine Turkish interventionist approach to the minority issues in Greece and Bulgaria in this period.
Internalization of European minority norms: the case of Greece in The European Union
2002
Coexistence of different ethnicities and cultural groups within the boundaries of Europe have come to be the subject matter of serious arguments of minority-related debates in the Continent to date, some of which have been translated into a series of institutional arrangements. These arrangements, relatively insufficiently embraced in earlier times, gave way to a broader yet compact arrangement by the European Union which is open to signature also by non-member states. However, due to the lack of value-free practices regarding minorities, certain "legally" European states such as Greece seem to prefer to adhere to nationhood-oriented policies whereby one state, one culture, one people is taken to be the norm. Given this mindset, the minorities in Greece are seen by the Greek state as supposed to be outside the borders, letting alone their peripheral locations. Although at a time when even non-member states strive to partake in the related affairs of the Union, close examination reveals that due to the strong and intrinsic existence of Greek nationalism encompassing its specific ingredients of religion, language, the imported belief that Greece sets a model civilization before all other nations, and similar Western intellect influence, Greece has come to deny the existence of its minority groups which this thesis seeks to examine in four parts. Based on such framework, it is seen with further elaboration by this thesis that within an unlimited time span, Greek minority policies and those of Europe display a discordant image, though the country is declared "European" by both Europe and itself.
Europeanisation as Legitimacy to Identify as a 'National Minority': The Turkish Community in Greece
International Journal on MInority and Group Rights , 2019
The issue of national minorities has never ranked high on the European Union's (eu's) agenda. No legal or policy measures to protect Europe's national minorities have been developed, reducing scholarly attention on the potential of Europeanisation of national minority politics to the minimum. This article addresses this misconception and argues that Europeanisation of national minority politics does occur, however, not where originally expected. By shifting attention to a poorly studied area-minority actors and their activities at the eu level-the article illustrates how minority actors create own change, how they are influenced by their own 'usages of Europe' and how this process helps to advance our knowledge of Europeanisation of today's national minority politics.
The Ethnic Minority Policy of Turkey
RUDN Journal of World History, 2020
This article is an overview of the state stance and attitude towards minorities throughout history of the republic of Turkey. It represents the official approach of the republic towards ethnic and religious groups. Though due to actions of the Ottoman Empire, the number of non-Turks in the republic of Turkey already was incomparably small, however their existence could not be ignored. Still Turkey recognizes only three minorities (Greeks, Armenians, and Jews) and for decades adopted the strategy of regarding all minority persons other than Greeks, Armenians, and Jews as Turks. Ethnic variety was considered a threat to territorial integrity of Turkey. Every action was directed to create a unitary nation-state suppressing ethnic identities of non-Turks. In this article state policy towards ethnic groups in the republic of Turkey is examined from the perspective of the Lausanne Treaty provisions and legislative regulations regarding the status and rights of minorities showing to what e...