(ANSA-AFP) - ATHENS, MAY 31 - Turkey's foreign minister was
scheduled to meet the Greek prime minister and foreign minister
on Monday, a day after raising tension in Athens with comments
on the country's Muslim minority. Mevlut Cavusoglu had
previously said the aim of his visit was to prepare for a
bilateral meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos
Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a
NATO summit in Brussels on June 14. But on Sunday, Cavusoglu's
description of the minority as "Turkish" ahead of visiting the
northeastern region near the Turkish border prompted an angry
response from the Greek foreign ministry. "The Muslim minority
in Thrace has about 120,000 Greek inhabitants," the ministry
said in a statement. "Turkey's constant attempts to distort this
reality, as well as the allegations of non-protection of the
rights of these citizens, or of discrimination, are unfounded
and are rejected in their entirety," it added. The status of
Greece's Muslim minority is one of several points of contention
between the two NATO allies. (ANSA-AFP).
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