At the heart of the pre-election period is Rodobi – the opposition NT obsession – SYRIZA

A feud involving an important national issue is intensifying

12 days before the June 25 elections, the ND-SYRIZA conflict rages over Rodopi.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who initially spoke about the Turkish consulate’s intervention in favor of Syriza’s minority candidates, first emerged after the May 21 election results, when Rodopi was the only pink dot on an otherwise blue map. Hüseyin Zeybek and Özgür Ferhat later complained that “Alexis Tsipras was officially informed that the Turkish embassy was campaigning for its two candidates ahead of the May 21 election”.

SYRIZA’s reaction was strong, and yesterday Alexis Tsipras, after his meeting with interim Prime Minister Ioannis Sharma, condemned Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s approach to the matter, accusing him of “deciding to instrumentalize an important issue. The pre-election field issue of the Muslim minority in Thrace. It is an important institutional and national issue”.

They also responded from Koumoundourou that when New Democracy or PASOK won a certain region, no one spoke publicly about foreign factor interference in the elections.

For his part, Nikos Androulakis from Rethymnon accused both New Democracy and SYRIZA of “deep adventurism” on the Rodope issue, while the KKE also intervened in the matter, warning of “dangerous games with ND, SYRIZA and the Muslim minority Thrace”. PASOK […] They are taking place at a time when Greek-Turkish relations are developing a deeply negative arrangement”.

The fight is on

It is worth mentioning that the Turkish press has highlighted the internal conflict of SYRIZA talking about Turkish candidates against the backdrop of Ankara’s campaign to baptize the Muslim minority as “Turks” every time.

At the same time, when ND MP Sofia Valdebsi issued a “brochure”, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ April 10, 2018 was translated into Turkish and referred to issues related to collective self-determination. and in matters of Mufti election.

However, Syriza parliamentary candidate Haris Mamoulakis, who was on the same television crew, noted that the text in question was an article in Turkish that referred to elections in Greece and was not a party brochure.

Mr. Mamoulakis insisted that he knew Turkish, and indeed later he continued to post on Twitter about the matter.

Sofia Valdebsi tried to spread the news #FakeNews with his alleged positions #Syriza In 2015 in Turkish. But he didn’t know that I knew Turkish. A simple article from Turkish media on the so-called “Syriza Positions”!
#Election25_June pic.twitter.com/Etb5Y4jUeN

— Haris Mamoulakis (@Mamoulakis) June 12, 2023

Syriza then issued a statement, among other things, which asserted: “After the brutal threats against the Muslim minority by Mr. Bagoyannis and Mr. Skertsos, after Mr. Mitsotakis instrumentalized the EYP, it is its turn. Disgusting incitement Mr. Valdepsi”.

Sofia Voldebsi responded to the scathing announcement that SYRIZA accused of “provocation”: “Unfair, in an attempt to justify SYRIZA, … the Turkish scholar Mr. Haris Mamolakis, in his announcement this morning, on Sky, I presented a Turkish press report as a SYRIZA pamphlet. First, to the title I don’t know of any newspaper, in any country, that publishes an article with a party (and even a foreign) symbol on top.

Second, the fact that the pamphlet was published in Thrace before the January 2015 elections in which SYRIZA won 48.53% of the vote. Since then, the issue has been brought up several times by many, including my own article, not to mention Syriza fake news and provocations.

At the heart of the pre-election period

Successive places on panels, visits of ND executives to the region, the upcoming appearance of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Komotini in the last week before the elections, especially next Tuesday, June 20, and Alexis Tsipras in the following days, that the opposition to Rhodope is not going to stop.

Syriza’s president raised the matter with the interim prime minister and declared that he was “concerned about the targeting and threat against the Greek Muslim minority in Thrace, which would divide the local society, polarize it and lead to significant national risks. Anyway, this is a practice that has already made Ankara rub its hands.”

And he added: “If you don’t vote for us, you will have trouble in the future, Mrs. Bagoyanis said this blatant intimidation. The minority, the Muslim minority, was deliberately made in front of the cameras to send this message to every home, every Greek citizen, every social group.”

Agis Skourtsos, commenting on the action of Syriza’s president, raised the issue in his meeting with Ioannis Sharma, accusing Alexis Tsipras of political indecency. His candidates are two.

“The Conservative government cannot interfere in the pre-election campaign”, said Mr. Sarmas, for his part, explained during the cabinet meeting, “The government and each of its governments embraces all Greeks without discrimination. All Greeks, as members of a democratic homeland, must understand the needs and exercise all their political rights without division.