Mitsotakis: Tsipras briefed before May 21 election over Turkish interference in Rhodopi prefecture; 2 SYRIZA candidates cited

Incumbent prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday ramped up his and his center-right New Democracy (ND) party’s attack on rival SYRIZA party over what the latter claim is direct interference by the Turkish diplomats – stationed in Turkey’s consulate in the northeast city of Komotini – during the previous May 21 election.

Rhodopi prefecture in northeast Greece, with Komotini as its capital, was the only prefecture in Greece to give leftist SYRIZA a majority in the previous ballot, 33.19 percent to ND’s 27.06 percent.

In a direct political “barrage” against SYRIZA leader and his predecessor in the premier’s seat, Alexis Tsipras, Mitsotakis charged that “…Mr. Tsipras was briefed, before the May 21 elections, about the interventions of the Turkish consulate in Rhodopi… He was fully briefed over how the Turkish consulate was campaigning for (specific) two candidates.”

The charges by Mitsotakis, made during a television interview on Sunday morning, come amid close media and political party scrutiny of the results in the specific prefecture, which hosts a sizable Muslim minority.

Neighboring Turkey has long demanded that the Muslim minority in Thrace province be characterized as “Turkish”, in contrivance to the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which created the modern Turkish state and normalized its relations with neighboring states and major powers.

Mitsotakis added: “He (Tsipras) was fully briefed that the Turkish consulate was campaigning for two SYRIZA candidates in the area.”

He also called on the two SYRIZA candidates in question, Ozgur Ferhat and Hussein Zeibek to state that they represent the Muslim, and not the “Turkish minority… but I don’t think they will do so because this will annoy the Turkish consulate.”

Mitsotakis also said he will not tolerate any “instrumentalization” of the Muslim minority by Ankara, which he said has no right to intervene in Greek domestic issues, while also appearing confident that ND will again come in first-past-the-post in the upcoming June 25 election, stressing:

“I will talk with (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan about this issue. I will tell him that such practices must stop”.

Finally, he said the fortified fence along the Evros River will be extended and completed, while, if re-elected, his first state visit abroad will be to Cyprus.