Legal situation of Turkish (Muslim) waqfs in Greece and examination of Komotini (Gümülcine) waqfs

Abstract

With the Lausanne Peace Treaty in 1923, a population exchange between the Republic of Turkey and Greece took place. As a result of this treaty, where these two countries are parties, the Turkish population in Western Thrace (Alexandroupoli, Komotini and Xanthi), which was found in Greek territory and in Turkish territory in Istanbul, Gökçeada and Bozcaada Greek population was excluded from the population exchange. Currently, there are approximately 150,000 Muslim Turkish minorities in the Western Thrace region of Greece. Although the rights of these minorities are determined by the Lausanne Treaty, the rights of the Western Thrace Minority with Article 44 of the Lausanne Treaty were protected. The Waqfs in Greece, in this context, it was protected by Article 40 of the Lausanne Treaty, but this was violated in time in the political environment of Greece. In 1967, the junta administration in Greece in 1967 was dismissed the administrative committees of the Komotini and Xanthi Turkish Community Waqfs and the Turkish Waqfs administrations in Greece started to be determined by appointment. The determination of the waqf administration with the election ended from this date...