Hawzah News Agency (Ankara - Turkey) - Top Turkish officials on Tuesday slammed Greece’s president for mislabeling the Muslim Turkish minority in a region of Greece bordering Turkey as a "Greek Muslim minority".

"The president of a country said to be the cradle of democracy again called the Muslim Turkish minority a ‘Greek Muslim minority’,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter, saying this mischaracterization comes “despite all the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.”

He added: “Whatever you say, Western Thrace’s Turkish minority has been Turkish for centuries, it will remain Turkish..!"

On Sunday, visiting Western Thrace, a Greek region with a large Muslim Turkish population, Prokopis Pavlopoulos claimed that under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the Turks of Western Thrace are only a religious minority, whereas the Orthodox Greeks living in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul are a national minority.

In a speech, Pavlopoulos referred to the Greek minority in Istanbul as a "Greek minority,” while using the expression "Greek Muslim Minority" to describe the Turkish minority in Western Thrace.

‘Reprehensible’ to deny Muslim Turkish minority

Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, also blasted the Greek leader.

"It is extremely wrong for Greek President Pavlopoulos to call the Muslim Turkish minority a 'Muslim Greek Minority' during his visit to Western Thrace. Denying the identity of the Muslim Turkish minority is a reprehensible act," he said on Twitter.

Celik urged Pavlopoulos to correctly address the Muslim Turkish minority with “respect for democratic values," adding that it is "unacceptable" for politicians to launch "systematic attacks against the identity" of Muslim Turks in an EU member country.

For decades Greece has enforced policies suppressing the Muslim Turkish minority of Western Thrace – often in defiance of European court rulings – such as denying them the right to elect their own muftis (religious leaders) or banning the word “Turkish” in the name of associations.