‘Greek bid to wipe out ancient Muslim cemetery foiled’

GUMULCINE, Greece (AA) – Türkiye’s intervention has managed to thwart Greece’s plan to build a football field over an Ottoman-era Muslim cemetery in Western Thrace that had been demolished earlier this year.

A cemetery belonging to the Turkish minority in Horozlu (Petinos), a village in Western Thrace’s Xanthi region, was destroyed by Greek authorities on March 16.

Municipal authorities of Bulustra (Avdira) “were planning to turn a part of the cemetery into a sports field,” Mustafa Trampa, the mufti (Muslim cleric) of the Turkish minority in the Western Thrace city of Iskece, disclosed.

Their plans were foiled when the Turkish Foreign Ministry took up the issue, he said.

Ankara had strongly condemned the move, calling for the cemetery to be brought back “to its former state.”

“After Türkiye’s statement, the issue gained international prominence,” said Trampa, adding that officials in Bulustra were forced to “withdraw the decision immediately.”

He criticized Greek authorities for undermining the Turkish minority’s efforts to protect the historical site.

“Greece is doing everything it can to remove all traces of Ottoman history — be it baths, mosques, madrasas, or cemeteries, throughout the country and in Western Thrace,” said Trampa, who became the mufti of Iskece this September.