The Turkish Minority of Western Thrace constituted 65 % of the population in Western Thrace in 1920 when it was ceded to Greece. Now, it only makes up 35 % of the population, despite their high birth rate. According to the Human Rights Watch report of 1990 taking the birth gowth rate as %2, the Minority Population should have been around 500.000 by then. In order to achieve its goal to eradicate the Turkish Minority as an ethnic, religious and cultural entity, Greece arbitrarily expelled thousands of Minority members from citizenship, through application of the repealed Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law. Article 19 was abrogated by the Greek Parliament in June 1998. Yet, as the abrogation is not retroactive in nature, thousands of stateless minority members are still unable to regain their Greek citizenship unlawfully taken away by Greek authorities.
Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law which was in effect between 1959-1998, reads as follows: "A person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without the intention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek nationality".
According to the Greek Interior Ministry, there are 46.638 vitims of the Article 19. Whereas according to the ECRI (European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance) reports, this figure is around 60.000. The Article, based on racial premises, was employed as a weapon to deprive ethnic Turks of their citizenship. This article was in contradiction with Article 4 of the Greek Constitution which states that "every Greek citizen has the freedom to go abroad and return to his country; travel and settlement within the country cannot be restricted". In addition, it was against the basic rules of the fairness and justice since there was no possibility of appeal against the decision taken by administrative authorities.
The Greek authorities, making use of the article expelled thousands of Greek citizens of Turkish origin. The administrative decision taken by the Greek authorities was published in the Official Gazette while the person concerned was not officially notified of the action taken against him or her. Thus the Turkish Minority members lost their citizenships while studying in abroad, working in abroad (in an EU or non-EU country), even while during their compulsory military service in the Greek Army. They usually learn that they lost their citizenship when there is a need of contact with the official Greek authorities.
Claiming that it was offering a remedy to the problems of its former citizens, Greece decided to give them the status of "heimatlos" prior to abrogation of Article 19. There is no consistency in, first expelling the citizens from citizenship then, giving them the status of "heimatlos" with the assertion of finding a solution to their problems. Because, the status of "heimatlos" not only lacks the right to property and right to appeal to a court, but also, it is a fact that, there is no obligation for the state to give a passport to a person of "heimatlos" status or to accept those persons back when they leave the country. Therefore, neither the status of "heimatlos", nor the abrogation of Article 19 is a remedy for the suffering of the thousands of stateless minority members.
Although the Greek Government took some small steps mainly to evade criticism by declaring that only a few dozens of the victims would reacquire their citizenship, thousands of the Turkish victims of the said Article continue to live without their Greek citizenship and thus they are also deprived of the benefits stemming from being the citizens of an EU member country.
As stated by the Greek Foreign Minister during her visit to Western Thrace in February 2007 that the Greek Government has no further plans to reinstate the citizenship of the Article 19 victims. The victims are still expecting their rights to be reinstated.