1990 Komotini events

The Komotini events (Turkish: Gümülcine olayları) occurred on 29 January 1990 between local Greek Christians and members of the Turkish Muslim minority in the Komotini area in northern Greece. The riots started over the conviction and imprisonment of an ethnic Turkish MP, Sadik Achmet, by a Greek court. 400 shops were looted, and the offices of two Turkish newspapers ransacked by Greek mobs. The pogrom-like attacks perpetrated by the Greek mobs in which no Turkish was injured, began when an ethnic Greek customs officer allegedly fell into a coma and died after being wounded in the head by a Muslim farmer during a heated argument about the trial of the Turkish MP.

Background

A minority, which is recognized by the Council of Europe as part of the Muslim minority in Western Thrace, with estimates varying from 50,000 (official census) to as high as 130,000 (Human Rights Watch). The term 'Turkish minority' is officially denied by Greece via using "Muslim Greeks" instead. Discrimination of the Turks has been criticized by the US and the European Parliament. On January 26, 1990, a Greek court jailed 2 Turkish leaders because they used the word "Turk" in their political organization. Turks in Greece cannot choose their religious leader (mufti).

Events

The events started in Komotini, when 1,500 Greek citizens of Turkish origin [Turks in Greece] gathered near a mosque chanting "we are Turks" in protest of the 1982 Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of the word "Turkish". After the broadcast of an erroneous news item on a local radio station, organized Greek mobs damaged and looted around 400 shops of the Turkish minority as well as beating up some of the minority members including the acting mufti.