Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) submitted a written statement to the 11th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council held from 2 to June 2009. The written statement entitled “Discrimination on the Ground of Ethnicity: the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and Hate Speech in Media” discusses the current legislation that is to prevent discrimination & hate crimes and hate speech in the media in Greece.
The written statement states that Law 927/1979 does not consider racist and/or prejudiced opinions to be taken as aggravated conditions in determining the punishment. Law 3304/2005 provides that if the aim is legal and conditionally proportional, racial and/or ethnical based treatments can not be regarded “discriminatory“. ABTTF underlines that the problem lies in the racism interpretation of the Greek judiciary authorities.
Turkish minority and hate speech in the media
In the written statement, it is underlined that despite the Code of Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility of the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers, the National Commission for Human Rights approved that there was an increasing tendency in creating stereotypes and prejudiced opinions in the local media.
In the written statement, it is stated that the Greek media increasingly targets the Turkish minority. As an example; on March 4th, in Hronos daily, with regard to the report submitted by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, on human rights of minorities in Greece, it was commented that “Those who have given information to the Rapporteur are those who benefit from the focal points which try to make non-existent minorities exist and destroy the stability in the country”.
With regard to the attacks against persons belonging to the Turkish Minority, the physical attack against Abdulhalim Dede, owner of the newspaper Trakya’nın Sesi and of the radio station ISIK FM, while he was on-air during the morning programme broadcasted by the Antenna TV is also referred in the written statement.
ABTTF emphasizes that increasing number of physical attacks against the Minority journalists creates serious concerns, demanding Greek authorities to define ethnicity based crimes as an aggravated factor in determining the punishment of the crime. Halit Habipoglu, President of ABTTF, stated that “In our country, groups with different ethnicity and religion are the targets of physical and verbal violence. Greek authorities should take necessary steps to prevent hate and bias-motivated crimes. Otherwise, peace among the citizens that make up the community will be in danger.“
The full text of the written statement submitted by ABTTF to the 11th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council can be retrieved here.
Please click here to read the full text of the written statement.
