Greece’s Muslim minority complain of ‘marginalisation’ in Komotini

KOMOTINI, Greece:: Outwardly, Komotini looks like other Greek cities, but there is a major difference: it has nine mosques whereas there are none in Athens.

The northeastern city has existed from the second century and was captured by Ottoman-era Turkey in the 14th. It was an important hub connecting the capital city of Constantinople, as Istanbul was then known, with the European part of the empire. Now it is home to nearly 30,000 Muslims, many of whom complain of marginalisation.

Greece has for centuries had a testy relationship with Turkey, with a slew of disputes ranging from Aegean sea issues to the long-running Cyprus problem. "The minority Muslims and their Greek compatriots cohabit but each side lives in its own corner," said Mustafa Mustafa, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s party, speaking in this frontier city of some 60,000 people.

Tsipras visits Turkey on Tuesday in a bid to improve relations. "Relations deteriorated in the 1960s and until 1990 many villages in the area were ringed by military barricades," Mustafa, who is in his sixties, said. "We could not access our properties or get a driving licence," he said.

"We would like to be a bridge of peace and friendship and not act as a brake." The issue of the Muslim minority is one of the sensitive areas in ties between the two neighbours. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a historic trip to Greece in 2017 -- the first by a Turkish leader in 65 years -- visited the Thrace region and called for the respect of the Muslim minority, railing against "discrimination" by the Greek government.

"It’s sad that we are being used," said a young Muslim woman, speaking on condition of anonymity. "These are normal people like us who are paying the price of politics," she said of residents of Komotini, which lies about 100 kilometres from the border.