ATHENS, May 9: The choice of a Muslim woman to stand in local elections in Greece has stirred a bitter row between the right, which has questioned her allegiance to the nation, and the left, which has called it a groundbreaking move.

Gul Kara Hasan, a Pomak, or Slav Muslim, was handpicked by opposition Socialist leader George Papandreou to run for prefect of her district of north-eastern Greece, where many Muslims of Turkish or Bulgarian origin live.

In overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian Greece, her candidacy, the first ever by a Muslim woman, in nationwide local elections due in October drew an immediate reaction from the country’s ruling conservatives as well as the powerful Orthodox Church.

Muslim men have been elected in the past to represent the region in the Greek parliament but Kara Hasan, a 27-year-old lawyer, would if she wins be in charge of a large part of northern Greece, in a far more visible role than that of deputy.

“If she wins, I wonder if she will be standing next to me at the parade for the March 25 celebration,” said George Kalantzis, minister for the northern regions of Macedonia and Thrace. He was referring to Greece’s national day marking an 1821 revolution against almost 500 years of occupation by the Ottoman Turks.

Greece and Turkey have long fought a war of words over what Greece calls its Muslim community but Ankara labels Turkish. Greece vehemently denies the existence of a Turkish minority.

While Kara Hasan is a Pomak — from a small group of ethnic Slavs who converted to Islam centuries ago — she lives side-by-side with the 120,000-strong ethnic Turkish community in Thrace.

Her choice has highlighted the fragile relations between majority Orthodox Greeks and the small Pomak and ethnic Turkish community, which until a few years ago was almost completely excluded from mainstream Greek social life.

Some conservative politicians and church leaders called on her to declare which country she recognises as her motherland.

“We are not the same as those who have another religion,” said high-ranking bishop Anthimos.

Kara Hasan has so far sidestepped the row, saying she is ready to work for the good of the region.

“People should not by judged by labels but by their actions. The decision for my candidacy was very open-minded,” she said.

By choosing her, the Socialists hope to gain Muslim votes and increase the representation of women in local polls.

“This a daring and groundbreaking move which deserves to be fully supported,” said Socialist deputy and former European Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou. —Reuters