A ratified mid-summer rider attached to a more-or-less unrelated draft amendment has approved the obligatory retirement – at the age of 67 – of Muslim muftis assigned to the Muslim minority in the northeast Greece province of Thrace.
The Muslim minority in the northeast prefectures of Komotini, Xanthi and Evros was recognized with the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, whereas the Greek state has for decades appointed the quasi-religious, quasi-jurists – similar to the regime in neighboring Turkey, although successive Turkish governments have demanded elections of the muftis in Greece.
The amendment was approved by the deputies from hard left SYRIZA and the right-wing populist Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) party – the coalition partners – along with MPs from a PASOK-led center-left grouping.
According to press reports, the tenure for the two appointed muftis of Komotini and Xanthi extends until 2021.
Rife press speculation in Athens over the recent period, mainly in media critical of the current coalition government, claimed that
