ABTTF attends the first annual meeting of the FUEN Working Group of the Turkic Minorities

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated from 20 to 23 November 2014 in Ankara, Turkey in the first annual meeting of the Working Group of the Turkic Minorities having been established last year under the umbrella of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) of which ABTTF is a regular member. ABTTF was represented by the Executive Board member Sami Yusuf at the meeting attended also by FUEN President Hans Heinrich Hansen and FUEN Vice-President Halit Habip Oğlu who initiated the meeting.

FUEN member Turkic minority organizations comes together for the first time at a roundtable meeting

The event, which brought together presidents or other high-level representatives of the FUEN member organisations that represent the Turkic minorities in Europe, began with visits to historical and cultural places in Ankara such as Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey and the first historical building of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), and was followed by a visit to Ambassador Ali Naci Koru, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. This first annual meeting is seen as a milestone for the Turkic minorities in Europe as they, for the first time, had the chance to come together and get aware of their problems/demands at the same platform.

The participating Turkic minority organisations were the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) from Germany; the Friendship, Equality and Peace Party (DEB) and the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (BTAYTD) from Greece; the Rhodes, Kos and the Dodecanese Turks Culture and Solidarity Association from Turkey; the International Society of Meshketian Turks “VATAN” and the Social Organisation for Fostering and Development of the Karachay-Balkar Traditions “Bars El” from Russia; the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the Association of Crimean Karaites from Ukraine and the Association of Meskhetian Turks “VATAN” from Azerbaijan.

The Working Group of the Turkic Minorities forms the third subgroup under the umbrella of FUEN after the Working Groups of the German and Slavic Minorities that were established much earlier already. The Working Group aims at representing the interests and problems of the Turkic minorities at international platforms. The next annual meeting of the Working Group will take place in 2015.