( Todayszaman )) Two members of the Turkish minority living in Greece have been elected to the Greek Parliament, according to preliminary results of the general elections held Sunday in Greece, where conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis won re-election with a diminished majority.
Ahmet Hac?osman from the Rodop prefecture and Cetin Mandac? from the Iskece ( Xanthi ) prefecture, out of a total 14 Turkish candidates, were both elected from the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), led by George Papandreou. None of the Turkish candidates from the ruling New Democracy (ND) party were elected and Ilhan Ahmet , a former Turkish member of parliament from Karamanlis' party, also failed to be re-elected, according to the preliminary results.
"I'll be working for Western Thrace Turks and the region for a better tomorrow," Hac?osman told the Cihan news agency on Monday. For his part, Mandac? expressed pleasure over the fact that the Turkish minority now has two representatives in Parliament and that he was elected as a deputy following the absence of a Turkish deputy from Iskece for the past six years. The two pledged to work in cooperation for the resolution of the Turkish minority's problems. Meanwhile, Erol Kasifoglu , head of the Western Thrace Turks Solidarity Association (BTTDD), voiced confidence in both Hac?osman and Mandac? , saying he believed that they would do their best to protect the Turkish minority's rights there.