UPDATE - Türkiye calls on Athens to investigate death threat against Turkish member of Greek parliament

UPDATES WITH COMMENTS FROM HUSEYIN ZEYBEK

By Handan Kazanci and Derya Gulnaz Ozcan

ISTANBUL/ATHENS (AA) - Türkiye on Friday called on authorities in Greece to investigate a death threat against a Greek lawmaker who is also a member of the country’s Muslim Turkish minority.

“We expect the Greek authorities to investigate this serious incident and punish the perpetrators,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Twitter, sharing a statement from the Turkish Minority Advisory Board in Greece’s Western Thrace region, which explained that Huseyin Zeybek, an MP in the Greek parliament, was threatened on live TV.

The Western Thrace region – near Greece's northeastern border with Türkiye – is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority numbering around 150,000.

“We stand behind the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, which will not give up its struggle for human rights and freedom despite all threats and pressure,” the ministry added.

According to a statement by the advisory board, Zeybek was threatened during a live broadcast on local Next TV by a person who called into the program.

The board said the threatening phone call intended to “turn the marginalizing and targeting rhetoric (by Greece) that has been going on for many years into action.”

The rights of the Turks of Western Thrace are guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but over the decades the situation has seriously deteriorated, including Greece refusing to carry out rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Zeybek who is a lawmaker from Greece’s SYRIZA party, said: “Such tensions benefit neither the minority nor the majority."

"We want to live in this country as first-class citizens. We love our country,” he said. “Of course, we have rights issues and we are also fighting for them.”

Zeybek said that he applied to the competent authorities such as the prosecutor's office and the police department over the incident.

He said he is not only a deputy representing the rights of the minority groups in the country but also the majority. “I aspire to the votes of the majority voters,” he said.

“I am a member of parliament who deals with every issue that concerns society such as education, health, and workers' rights. Of course, we cannot ignore the problems of the minority,” he added.