ABTTF and DEB Party attended conference on substance and practice of European language rights in Cottbus

The conference united language experts, local and regional administrative bodies and minority representatives

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended “Substance and Practice of European Language Rights” conference in Cottbus, Germany on 5-7 December 2013. At the conference commonly organised by Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), University of Hamburg, and Sorbian Institute, Western Thrace Turkish Minority has been represented through the participation of ABTTF President and FUEN Vice-President Halit Habip Oğlu, ABTTF Vice-President Cengiz İsmail and ABTTF Director General K. Engin Soyyılmaz. Xanthi Turkish Union (ITB) Board member Lawyer Sinan Molla attended the event on behalf of the Friendship, Equality, Peace (DEB) Party.

Chair of the Supervisory Board on Youth, Culture and Social Affairs of the City of Cottbus Berndt Weiße, Sorbian Minority Union – DOMOWINA General Director and FUEN Vice-President Bernhard Ziesch, Director in charge of Cottbus branch of the Sorbian Institute and FUEN Language Expert Dr. Hauke Bartels and Chairman of the Independent Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and professor at the Institute for International Affairs of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hamburg Prof. Dr. Stefan Oeter delivered the opening speech of the conference. At the conference, which brought experts on language rights together with minority representatives on local, regional and national levels, language rights in Europe on the basis of protection of minorities were discussed. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages have entered into force in 1998. The 15-year period and experiences since both agreements’ entry into force has been evaluated throughout the conference.

Sinan Molla: The pupils belonging to Minority families have no other choice but attending public schools with education only in Greek!

Having attended the conference with the initiative of ABTTF and on behalf of DEB Party, Lawyer Sinan Molla started his presentation by introducing himself as the board member of the Xanthi Turkish Union (ITB) which has been banned approximately 30 years ago despite the European Court of Human Rights’ decision condemning Greece for closure. Molla informed conference participants on problems Western Thrace Turkish Minority faces in terms of primary and secondary school education in addition to previous practice of exchange of teachers between Greece and Turkey. Having noted the problems on secondary school education as rather exacerbated than on the primary schools, Molla voiced Western Thrace Minority Culture and Education Foundation (PEKEM) has not been given any response to requests submitted to the Ministry in charge of education for opening of secondary and high school in areas densely populated by the Minority and a private kindergarten in the city of Xanthi.

Regarding the problem of Minority kindergartens, Molla said the needs and requests from the Western Thrace Turkish Minority for bilingual kindergartens to instruct in Greek and Turkish have not been met. Having made a remark that Greek Orthodox Minority in Istanbul had bilingual kindergartens, Molla recalled that pupils belonging to Minority families in Western Thrace have no other choice but attending public schools with education only in Greek.