ABTTF communicated the problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace at the German Bundestag

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) paid a one day official visit to the German Bundestag on 30 September 2011. ABTTF President Halit Habipoglu and ABTTF Director General K. Engin Soyyılmaz discussed the problems and current issues of the Minority with the Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid Rainer Büscher along with the two other members of the Committee Secretariat and assistant of the Committee President Tom Koenigs.

Discrimination and inequality is a part of the system in Greece

After presenting the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece and ABTTF, President Habipoğlu explained that the members of the Minority had been the subject of discrimination and inequality for a very long time in an EU member state that was said to be the ‘cradle of democracy’. During the 1955-1998, approximately 60 thousand persons belonging to the Turkish Minority had been deprived of their Greek citizenship and the problem had still not been resolved up to day. Secondly, Habipoglu reminded that due to the 3% national electoral threshold applied also to the independent candidates, the Minority was unable to send its own independent parliamentarians to the national parliament making their election practically impossible.

The policies towards the Turkish Minority are not honest

Habipoğlu continued by saying that discrimination and inequality continued even today and the rights of those, who had been deprived of their citizenship, were not restored while the Greek Minister of the Interior Haris Kastanidis was speaking of restoring the citizenship of the Thessalonica Jews who were former Greek citizens. Another example he gave was the statement of Grigoris Delavekouras, the Greek Foreign Ministry Spokesman, who stated “I don’t know of any significant problems about property rights” with reference to the trust assets owned by the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and as the Minority they did not find this statement honest.

Although the Turkish Government was taking positive steps towards the Greek Orthodox minority in Istanbul, Habipoglu said that the Greek Government was reluctant to build a dialogue with Turkish Minority of Western Thrace.