Past and present of Islam in the Balkans: The case of Greece

Avrupa'daki Müslümanlar üzerine yapılan bilimsel çalışmaların sayısı Soğuk Savaş sonrası dönemden artmaya devam etmektedir. Özelikle son yıllarda, Müslüman olmayan ülkelerde yaşayan Müslümanların dini özgürlükler bağlamındaki hakları bilim insanlarının dikkatini celbetmekte ve bu da Müslümanların içinde yaşadıkları çoğunluk toplumu içinde İslam olgusunun ne derece yer edindiğini anlamalarına yardımcı olmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, hâlihazırdaki çalışma Yunanistan'daki Müslümanların dini hakların hukuki ve kurumsal çerçevesini incelemekte, kâğıt üzerinde vadedilen hakların pratiğe ne derece yansıdığını sorgulamaktadır. Çalışmanın ortaya koyduğu sonuç, Yunanistan'ın kendi toprakları üzerinde yaşayan Müslüman gruplarına farklı davrandığı yönündedir: Batı Trakya bölgesi sınırları dâhilinde yaşayan Müslümanlar, bölge dışında yaşayan aynı dine mensup kişilere nazaran daha fazla dini özgürlüklere sahiptir. Bu araştırmanın temel argümanı Yunanistan'da yaşayan Müslümanların, tarihte veya günümüzde, uluslararası anlaşmalara ve Yunan hukukuna bağlı dini özgürlüklerinden tam anlamıyla faydalanmalarına Yunanistan tarafından izin verilmediğidir. Bunun yerine Yunanistan, dini otonomi alanına müdahale ederek bu alandaki kontrolünü daha da arttırmış, böylece Müslümanların kendileri ile ilgili dini konulardaki söz sahibi olmaları kısıtlanmıştır

Balkanlarda İslam'ın Dünü ve Bugünü: Yunanistan Örneği

Since the end of the Cold War era, there have been an increasing number of scientific studies about Muslims in Europe. Particularly in recent years, religious freedoms of Muslims living in non-Muslim countries started to attract more attention of scholars so as to understand how and to what extent Islam is incorporated within the majority culture. In this respect, this paper examines rights and restrictions of Muslims in Greece by exploring both legal and institutional framework of Islam as well as provision of rights in practise. It shows that Greece treats those Muslims living on its soil differently; the ones living inside Western Thrace have more religious liberties than their coreligionists residing anywhere outside of the region. This paper argues that Muslims in Greece have never enjoyed full autonomy in the realm of religious freedoms emanating from either international or Greek Law. Rather, Greece prefers to have the absolute state control over different issues of Islam across the country, thus limiting Muslims involvement in their own religious affairs

PDF

___

"Sümela ayini öncesi Batı Trakya'da çirkin provokasyon [Provocation in Western Thrace before the 15th of August ritual in Sumela/Turkey]", Azınlıkça, 59, 2010, p.38.
"The problems of the Turks in Rhodes, Kos and the Dodecanese", A/HRC/30/ NGO/94, Written statement submitted by FUEN, UN Human Rights Council, Thirtieth session, 7 September 2015, p. 4, _____https://www.ecoi. net/file_upload/1930_1443084799_g1520229.pdf> (accessed 10 January 2016).
"Written statement, Rhodes, Kos and the Dodecanese Turks Culture and Solidarity Association", OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, 21 September - 2 October 2015, Warsaw, HDIM. NGO/0379/15.
"Yenicemahalle Camii'nde şüpheli yangın [A suspicious fire in Yenicemahalle Mosque]", Gündem Gazetesi, 927, 24 April 2015.
"?????? ?????? ?????????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????????????? ??????? [They left head of a pig in front of the Greek-Arabic Centre]", Kathimerini, _____http://www.kathimerini.gr/788514/article/epikairothta/ellada/ afhsan-kefali-goyroynioy-sthn-eisodo-toy-ellhnoaravikoy-kentroy>, (accessed 17 October 2014).
Agga v. Greece (No.1-2) (17 October 2002-Case No: 50776/99 & 52912/99), Agga v. Greece (No.3) (13 July 2006 - Case No: 32186/02) and Agga v. Greece (No.4) (13 July 2006 - Case No: 33331/02) _____http://hudoc.echr. coe.int/eng?i=001-58518#{"itemid":["001-58518"]}> (accessed 1 November 2015).
Andreadis, K. G. ? ????????????? ????????? ??? ??????? ?????? [The Muslim Minority of Western Thrace], IMXA, Thessaloniki, 1956, [In Greek].
Antoniou, Dimitris. "Muslim Immigrants in Greece: Religious Organization and Local Responses", Immigrants & Minorities, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2003, pp. 155-174.
Antoniou, Dimitris. "Western Thracian Muslims in Athens: From Economic Migration to Religious Organization", Balkanologie, Vol. IX, No. 1-2, 2005, 10-25. _____http://balkanologie.revues.org/index579.html> (accessed 9 January 2016).
Dilek, Bahadır Selim. "Through the Eyes of a Journalist: Forgotten Turks of the Aegean", Mustafa Kaymakçı and Cihan Özgün (eds.), Turkish Identity in Rhodes and Kos, Rhodes, Kos, and the Dodecanese Islands Turks Culture and Solidarity Association, İzmir, 2014, pp. 95-123.
Greek Official Gazette. FEK' A, 14, 13.5.1882.
FEK A'11, 4.2.1991.
FEK A'128, 21.6.2006.
FEK A'148, 3.7.1920.
FEK A'24, 30.1.2013.
FEK A'302, 13.12.2015.
FEK A'37, 29.2.2008.
Greece 2014 International Religious Freedom Report, U.S. Department of State, _____http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm?- year=2014 &dlid=238386 >, (accessed 19 January 2016).
Gross, Andreas. Rapporteur-Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights (PACE), "The Situation of the Inhabitants of Rhodes and Kos with a Turkish Cultural Background", Doc. 12526, 23 February 2011, p.6,_____http:// assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-XrefViewPDF.asp?FileID=12646 &lang=en> (accessed 5 January 2016).
Huseyinoglu, Ali. "The Development of Minority Education at the Southeasternmost Corner of the EU: The Case of Muslim Turks in Western Thrace, Greece", PhD dissertation (unpublished), University of Sussex, Brighton/UK, 2012.
Hüseyinoğlu, Ali. "Batı Trakya'da Dini Özerklik Bağlamında '240 İmam Yasası' [Religious Freedoms in Western Thrace and the '240 Imam Law']", International Symposium on the Past and Present of Western Thrace Turks, Türk Ocakları İstanbul Şubesi Yayınları, Istanbul, 2016, pp. 157- 170.
Interview (Skype) with Anna Stamou, Responsible Person about Public Relations at the Muslim Association of Greece (MAG), 26 January 2016.
Katsikas, Stefanos. "Millets in Nation-States: The Case of Greek and Bulgarian Muslims, 1912-1923", Nationalities Papers, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2009, 177-201.
Kaymakçı, Mustafa. "Current Problems and Solutions Concerning Turkish Identity in Rhodes and Kos", Mustafa Kaymakçı and Cihan Özgün (eds.), Turkish Identity in Rhodes and Kos, Rhodes, Kos, and the Dodecanese Islands Turks Culture and Solidarity Association, İzmir, 2014, 3-24.
Konuk, Neval. Ottoman Architecture in Greece, SAM, Ankara, 2010.
Kostopoulos, Tassos. ?? '??????????' ??? ??????: ???????? ?????????? ??? ???? ???????? [The 'Macedonian' of Thrace: National plans for the Pomaks], Bibliorama, Athens [In Greek], 2009.
Kurban, Dilek and Konstantinos Tsitselikis. A Tale of Reciprocity: Minority Foundations in Greece and Turkey, TESEV, Istanbul, 2010.
Louka, Maria. "To ????? ???? ?????? [Islam in Greece]", Bimagazino (To Vima), 18 October 2015, [In Greek].
Mpouriskari, Ersi. ? ????????? ????????????? ???? ?????? [The Ottoman Architecture in Greece], Greek Ministry of Culture, Athens, 2008, [In Greek].
Özgün, Cihan. "Social, Economic and Cultural Life in Rhodes and Kos Turks", Mustafa Kaymakçı and Cihan Özgün (eds.), Turkish Identity in Rhodes and Kos, Rhodes, Kos, and the Dodecanese Islands Turks Culture and Solidarity Association, İzmir, 2014, 173-206.
Pallis, A. A. "The Greek Census of 1928", The Geographical Journal, 73 (6), 1929, 543-548.
Personal notes of the author, 8 July 2010, Rhodes.
Region Office of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, 2011, _____www.remth.gr> (accessed 21 July 2011). The same datum is not available anymore, [In Greek].
Serif v. Greece (14 December 1999-Case No: 38178/97)] _____http://hudoc.echr. coe.int/eng?i=001-58518#{"itemid":["001-58518"]}> (accessed 1 November 2015).
Telloglou, Tasos. "??????????????? ???? ?????? ???? ????? [Three mosque have been already been registered in Athens]", Kathimerini, 22 November 2015.
Triandafyllidou, Anna and Hara Kouki. "Muslim Immigrants and the Greek nation: The Emergence of Nationalist intolerance", Ethnicities, Vol. 13, No. 6, 2013, pp. 262-284.
Triandafyllidou, Anna and Ruby Gropas. "Constructing Difference: The Mosque Debates in Greece", Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2009, pp. 957-975.
Tsitselikis, Konstantinos. "The Legal Status of Islam in Greece", Die Welt des Islams, Vol. 44, No. 3, 2004, 402-431.
Tsitselikis, Konstantinos. Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden; Boston, 2012.