ABTTF carries on its official visits to the European Parliament

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made on 18 October 2011 an official visit to the European Parliament (EP). ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu and Ali Türkelli, member of the ABTTF Department of International Affairs, discussed the problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece with the MEPs Laszlo Surján (Hungary), İsmail Ertuğ (Germany) and Alojz Peterle (Slovenia).

ABTTF President Habipoğlu provided the MEP Laszlo Surján from the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) with information on the structure and activities of the ABTTF and said that although the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece had judicial right to autonomy in the areas of education and religion, this autonomous structure had been fully destroyed today through various applications. Surján, member of the EP Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages, argued that the issue of minority rights were in a sense a European case and hence there should be a macro solution comprising the entire Europe.

During the meeting with the MEP from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats İsmail Ertuğ, President Habipoğlu underlined the Germany’s leading position as the driving force of the EU economy by referring to economic crisis in Greece and expressed that they were concerned that the attitude towards minorities and foreigners in Greece were going to be more and more negative in that environment of economic crisis. Upon this, Ertuğ underlined the importance of finding concrete solutions for the problems adding that first, establishment of a dialogue between the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and Greece was essential.

President Habipoğlu: We ask for our rights, not reciprocity

During the meeting with the MEP Alojz Peterle from the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), who is also member of the EP Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages, President Habipoğlu noted that despite Turkey’s recent decision to return immovable properties to the Greek Orthodox minority in Istanbul, of which status and rights had been determined, as of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, by the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty, Grigoris Delavekouras, Spokesperson for the Greek Foreign Ministry, had claimed with respect to the immovable properties owned by the Turkish Minority that there had been no significant problems concerning property rights in Greece. President Habipoğlu stated that Greece had on several occasions refused to negotiate the problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace with the claim that there could not be reciprocity in the area of human rights issues, but however, the Turkish Minority asked for restoration of its rights, not reciprocity.