House will it be joined by the sounds of securing the democratic nomination i believe we can be down trying follow the developments in the u. S. Election campaign on al jazeera. Greece has a proud reputation as the birthplace of democracy of government by the people for the people but the ethnic to kish minority of ptrace in the countrys northeast who say theyve suffered decades of discrimination from the state thats not have it seen today weve been to investigate. Western thrice. The northeastern corner of grace bordering both kerry and turkey is wild and remote. 3rd day payment in secret struggle these 3 countries form a spectacular natural frontex. The history of this region is no less dramatic it has changed hands countless times over the centuries finally coming and also men rule in the 1300s which lasted until about a 100 years ago. But even today the mountainous province of western thrice which is now given from athens continues to send of ethnic tensions. 150000 ethnic turks live here and theyre getting angry. The greek state wants to control. Minority here in all the fields wants to control our religion our believe. People here say that decades of discrimination a push that reach into boiling point. Head im thinking that theyre on it and. Not that. Part begin to take as the. Turkish president. Divine is viewed as a hero here. Hes condemned athens over the mistreatment of ethnic turks in a region where religious leaders have been jailed journalists silenced and land seized by the state. Or the conviction to visit his them a supplement you know the one that was good shit if i did it then im a blue look obviously. Within the safe confines of the many cultural associations across thrice turkish traditions are celebrated and passed on to youngsters. Hysteric years ago i was going to a lot of part of local lot of the gaelic appeal of. Them still like it is give it. My kitchen challenged while i was there there are many others who have a lot of. Good ignace he let it make it in as. Traditions a strong. Especially in the villages where many ancient practices continue to thrive. However Community Leaders say that their distinctive ethnicity is under siege from the state. Show on the show here q just on im not very little of work can you talk to your sharia. Law if you can do it because in the mean years in the fall in the loop. Those urns and the Turkish Union of xynthia was founded in 1927 in order to preserve turkish culture. But when the court ruling forbidding any energy from having the words turkish in its title came into effect its signs along with those of other n. G. O. S were seized by the police a move those unsuccessfully challenged in europe. Now as a kid was a sort of a good because now its like. I dont know but its all about marking as a color you can stickers of them the movement of the gun you can give me a lot of that want to feel dont believe in im something of. Discrimination starts here. Last year the creek Education Ministry should die in 5 turkish Minority Schools bringing the total number of schools closed to 65. 00 in just 8 years. Now his forties say as a reserve went to this turkish speaking school in the village of qana mccaw struck as to his parents and their parents. Its sudden closure has dealt a heavy blow to the community if i call them. Mr morkel the. Fact that i never call them give. Me as a. Couple. The addition of. Where they are much as a little known formal muster where i was a little who were good and it was a pleasant day let alone in their candidate in mrs burrage air i was in the church of lebanon can the 2 died in each s. And yet the millionaire and get all my. Body there. Are stimulate me. The government closed the turkish schools citing lack of demand but according to the community actually too many students for the number of places available. In fact the situation. Has become so acute in traces 2nd city zanti that a policy of splitting up the school day into 2 shifts was introduced resulting in substantially fewer as of schooling per day for ethnically turkish children. Hundreds poured on to the streets to protest the news. Just widely seen as part of a broader policy to phase out the turkish language in the region. And a stimulus funding to get us from madison like it is going to talk in jet. Crashed adventures but an ear and im addicted as a man and i believe in it. They never. Want to share this and they get on top of them said it in their. Heads in the. Critics also accuse the creek state of attempting to impose religious status on the turkish minority. The region has traditionally elected its mathieson like Abraham Sarah he represents come a teeny the regions capital and surprisingly the majority of turks refuse to recognize those directly appointed by the government. When come a teen hes appointed mufti was invited to speak as a Minority School the students made it very clear he wasnt welcome and bought his entrance. To be your me. But i in and moved to the other they must give it because the stadium is deemed good abusively. Is about the call that a joke said in early new jonna that all of them are synonyms stehman and he did byzantine it. Himself was elected mufti of comma teenie with the resigning 90 percent of the verdict. Hes less popular with the greek authorities he has just been sentenced to an 80 day prison and full use of thing authority by taking part in friday prayers by village in 2016 or the woman moves on this over the. Issue there surely is a living that it. Looked like a bit then that there are mood message there that will he say he had never explanation as to why the state waited 4 years to put him on trial but the 69 year old mufti knows hes been in the authorities sites for some time followed threatened and regularly taken in for questioning by the secret to this beating murder me on it better get the bizarre take. All i let out of the stick is that they are not about out to get me out of routine be all the way you behave youve got the b. S. And get the. High out the yes sure that. Many trace increases attitudes to his ethnic back to the cyprus conflict of 974. When due to increasing ethnic tensions between the islands greek and turkish communities to turkey launched and of beijing. More than 500. 00 people died in the fighting which resulted in the partition of cyprus. From this point on the greek state refused to recognize the ethnicity of its turkish citizens. Like some middle east to call it arc. Diet they have it is because the 255 at the gate can see that some of them call to most other none of them and all of a cult. Almost rumor has among other that she can be an oracle. Or look the. Sort of the lady that. Something like 60000. 00 asked nick to a strip of creek citizenship. Get economy you notice the number of possible that our Commission Also know which is a lot of the const whos the last not on that up and saw. The link she knows what a highly things on the door was on his speech looked a little. Before 19 monkeys because dont get driving license. So what we see is. Actually. Almost all Turkish Community talk just people here. Had horses. In fact many turkish villages were sealed off by military checkpoints well into. The 1990 s. Places like the village of at you know us. Ox a haka was a boy at the time but remembers it while. This and in the mid ninetys until than or somebody who was from other parts of greece it was not possible for him to come in this area without any specific permission. Why you how to how and a special identity in order to come to your area because it was minority because it is a minority and. It was a policy. Minorities to become isolated in the villages isolated in debt. At the time as dick turks went just having a difficult time in greece. In neighboring bulgaria joining the 1980 s. The communist authorities embarked on a brutal policy of force assimilation including giving ethnic turks slavic names. This was the impetus for the because of the so the because their names were changed through christian names which for a muslim to have a christian name is in france. And in the 1009000 think way 350000 troops left for the u. K. Its unsurprising that so many left people would be eaten and fined just for speaking turkish thousands were jailed across the country places like better than a an infamous to Attention Center where 500 turks were imprisoned without trial for resisting the forcible changing of the names. But that was bulgaria a communist dictatorship in greece. The birthplace of democracy in the heart of the e. U. Things were supposed to be different but athens has always been a world away from west and thrice and most just geographically as we soon find for ourselves from the moment we arrived in the region to make this film we were followed by Unmarked Police cars stopped and interrogated about our movements on one occasion although it was always all of us we were journalists we were even briefly arrested on suspicion of espionage and threatened with years in jail after being held overnight have a lawyer secure whatever they. Were they get hired your bunch of guys they teach in touch with. Some other still must look. This is pretty big you can like yucatan the correct me check out this is another. Quote this if i dont put it. Earlier amman is the editor of a turkish language newspaper. When Police Intimidation fail to silence the paper was sued for 1000000 euros. Beating your you will get out of your your pond because they teach in. Because it will solve the business in detroit. We encountered several people who were too afraid to speak on camera. There is no question that many feel the pressure of the state. The editor miller western traces other circus language newspaper whites prison for writing an article which criticized the notion of state appointed mufti. Mockumentary visit. You know me i or you know me i hope so hope is that as along that all the. They are than done the business well least enough it took them sorta. Indeed it very night in their own bush i hope its just us im not shocked at all the. Chain gates sayes has been threatened and physically attacked by the police on several occasions for refusing to stop reporting on the plight of the turkish minority. But that i could they find theres good little old onus really amaze. And be excited that it was done but honestly the book. We wanted to ask the greek government about this and other issues covered in a film to get an official response to the many other gay sions of discrimination weve heard that we wanted to give the authorities in athens an opportunity to explain to put their side of the story but despite repeated requests to various ministries no one was available for interview. Nonetheless successive creek governments have challenged accusations of Human Rights Violations in 3 days insisting that there is not a turkish minority. As recently as february 2020 outgoing president procket place pub local us made this comment. Whatever is said the truth in International Law cannot be ever written in any way the Muslim Minority who lives in thrice is a religious minority and lost an ethnic war. Greece like many countries in europe has seen massive support for the far right in recent years brothers have golden door greeces anti islam party attracted i was ns of supporters they use some center for me. Towards us sometimes they say that if you dont like what is you can go turkey why. Im a greek citizen. Im turkish its not my fault its my genes. Im turkish but im also greek. Against this backdrop it takes some courage to politically represent greeces ethnic turks. See it came as a fertile is the leader of kafe the party of for. Chip piece under quality. All going to take so long with the digital crowd in the arm you know im stunned that i told talk about this both talking to them and i did this brass or other im gonna take the simple problems that isnt who can use this belies the law on the i guess. Said game say shes frequently misquoted and for the fight on national t. V. And told it it by far right extremists reuters the moment of your month is that we are reminded of the democrats the reporters those who are not top of the take did the very top of that they follow they think mainly they think may make make the plan all the following get send in order just say send order just an island does the state told you all come to this house but. Nevertheless in greece his most recent parliamentary election keefe came top in the provinces of zante and trade dopey with a 3rd of the verdict its prompted a racist backlash in the regions biggest city drop of the us where turkish cemeteries desecrated tombstone smashed a dog with nationalist symbols game remains taunted. Is the most part so like google dot com is degrading the endorsed in the file it goes to those that dont touch my arms were on that. Last may not happen soon a National Election threshold of 3 percent effectively prevents any politician representing the turkish minority from entering poem and as it accounts for only 2 percent of the population. A good experience here is much stronger than the traditional. Political you know. Billionaire double getting in the greeks here right consciously to put it its. Either way as possible from their every day pretty core which is say that its less 6 bones its culture. New coach political culture yes. But critics say that all aspects of turkish culture are under attack. All kateri traill ruddocks from greece is also meant past all disappearing fast practically no state money is allocated for the upkeep of ancient autumn and monuments which are allowed to fall into disrepair and the money for the upkeep from turkish cultural foundations is prohibited. Theyre worth more than 3000. More new months of autumn one heritage here in greece but in recent years we just have 300 the greek poissy. About the Historical Monuments of ottomans let them be demolished they dont want them here. The bay is a mosque indeed imitation is a masterpiece of autumn in architecture it is the oldest mosque in europe built in the 1400s. Suman speaks for the ethnic turks of did imitate chair. It isnt mr 110. 00. B. Or spawn the etc. Yeah but the packing. Of upon kyle brought out the of the of this is that its intricate i mean. But disaster struck in 2017 when inexplicably the mosque caught fire. The official version is that sports from Welding Equipment left in the building some high reach the wooden roof which thing caught fire. But few vocals believe the story. Did fire you know i did open a book. I was. Actually. We are suspicious about fly the turkish people mostly believe that its. Not accidents. Against this backdrop its ironic that theres no shortage of ethnic turks prepared to speak up for greece. But to take it to cause almost it was a month do you noticed on a cessna may be rebuild the low cost crush a common. Minimum standard which was on there for that notion. Ozone is grandparents like many ethnic turks died defending increased during the 2nd world war and its aftermath. Wasnt sure what was in there that it was that the little miss bush was in on the. Period sunday should know that in general. It might seem hard to believe that cracker turkish relations could get any worse but then they did. The unable to cope with the growing number of refugees arriving from syria on the 29th of april 2020 turkey opened its land border with greece for those wanting to enter you or as thousands headed west the Greek Economy was deployed. Hostility between the 2 countries was the worst it had been since the turkish invasion of cyprus. When creek soldiers started firing tear gas and smoke grenades over the border turkish troops returned fire a very real conflict was and the narrow they avoided. None of which bodes well for the ethnic turks of west and thrice. Heres a clue. Educating astonished at it and but i think i was a. Kind in there and it has made an italian history as you allude and a bit of a cows along and do the want to die on martha. For that is just what creases ethnic turks hateful. Comments ains association of turkish teachers is holding its weekly music night youd be forgiven for thinking that you were in down time istanbul they had this fair is surprising of a big. Observed chemist honestly it occurred. To color columns a political. Vision as each. Day i s. In the age of the coronavirus information is more important than ever wonder when east investigates the battle for truth in china and beyond on aljazeera. April on aljazeera. 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A ceasefire in the yemen war the saudi that Coalition Announces a 2 week break to help peace efforts and the fight against coronavirus. Im about this in and this is all just here live from doha also coming up new york states reaches a grim new tally more cases than the whole of space