ABTTF at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

The President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habipoğlu and ABTTF Director General K. Engin Soyyilmaz paid a working visit to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 3 to 4 October 2012 in Strasbourg.

Greece insists on not implementing the ECtHR’s judgments

During the meeting with the members of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Boriss Cilevičs and Klaas de Vries, ABTTF President Habipoğlu stated the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has condemned Greece of violating the right to freedom of association of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, though she has been insisting on not implementing those three judgments of the Court.

Increase in hate-motivated attacks following the entry of Golden Dawn to the Greek Parliament

During the meeting with Prof. Dr. Pelin Gündeş Bakır, member of the Turkish Delegation to PACE, President Habipoğlu noted hate-motivated attacks against the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace have inreased, adding the members of the ultra-nationalist political party Golden Dawn drove shouting nationalist slogans by the Turkish minority villages in Xanthi and Komotini, which led to anxiety and fear among Western Thrace Turks.

During the meeting with Françoise Kempf, Adviser to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, President Habipoğlu said under the former article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code, 60 thousand persons have been deprived of their Greek citizenship. Habipoğlu also referred to the attacks on the Komotini Turkish Youth Union and on the Turkish teacher Mülazım Cemali by the supporters of the Golden Dawn.

Children not enrolled in the Minority primary school as they have not attended public kindergarten and school principal referred to the disciplinary board

During the meeting with Zeynep Gökşen Acar, Lawyer at the Secretariat of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), President Habipoğlu described the problems faced by the Turkish Minority in the field of education in mother language, the problem of bilingual Minority kindergartens, the Law of 3518/2006 and its impact on the Turkish Minority, saying that 22 children belonging to the Turkish Minority were not enrolled in the Turkish Minority Primary School in Echinos (Şahin) on the ground that they did not attend the public kindergarten, and the school principal was referred to the disciplinary board by the state inspectorship of the Ministry of Education and got an administrative warning as he had admitted all those children to the first grade of the school.