ISTANBUL, 17 September 2006 — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned neighboring Greece yesterday to respect the right of its Muslim minority to elect its own religious leader or face reciprocal measures from Ankara. “If Greece respects its own minority rights and has expectations from Turkey on this issue, then its should also fulfill its own obligations,” Erdogan told an assembly of Turks from northeastern Greece, the Anatolia news agency reported.
“This issue must be resolved. If not, there are things Turkey could do under the principle of reciprocity,” he said. Erdogan charged that Greece’s treatment of its Muslim minority amounted to a violation of the human rights criteria of the European Union of which it is a member.
Meanwhile, thousands of people took part in a silent march yesterday to protest against a bombing that killed 10 people and to appeal for peace in Turkey’s troubled, mainly Kurdish southeast. Amid tight security, some 5,000 people marched through Diyarbakir, the region’s biggest city and scene of last Tuesday’s explosion, led by senior members of Turkey’s main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP).
