ABTTF attended the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva

The problems of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace with regard to recognition based on ethnicity and freedom of association brought forward by ABTTF

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated in the 8th session of the United Nations (UN) Forum on Minority Issues that was held from 24 to 25 November 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland. ABTTF Vice-President Mehmet Hüseyin and Funda Reşit, member of the International Affairs and Lobbying Group of ABTTF, represented the Turkish minority of Western Thrace at the session entitled “Minorities in the criminal justice system”.

The ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace is not recognized and consequentially its freedom of association is violated

Speaking under the fourth agenda item “Challenges of criminal justice systems in addressing the needs and demands of minorities, Funda Reşit, member of the International Affairs and Lobbying Group of ABTTF, referred to the restrictions and limitations on the right to freedom of association that are still persistent in Greece and stated Greece recognizes the Turkish minority of Western Thrace as the “Muslim minority in Thrace” by denying its ethnic Turkish identity and the Greek government does not permit the minority associations that have the word “Turkish” in their names. Reşit mentioned the three judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with regard to the Turkish Union of Xanthi, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Region of Rodopi and Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association which were either dissolved or not registered by the Greek authorities on the grounds that their names included the words “Turkish” or “minority”, and said although the Court held unanimously in 2007 and 2008 that there had been a violation by Greece of the Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Greece has not implemented yet the concerning judgments, adding according to a report adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) during its Autumn Session 2015, Greece is among the nine member states of the Council of Europe that ignore at most the ECtHR judgments. Reşit urged the Greek government to implement, without any further delay, the judgments of ECtHR and to amend the national Code of Civil Procedures in such a way that it allows the implementation of the Court judgments in matters related to freedom of association.

The Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations Office at Geneva made use of its right to reply during the session and stated there is no discrimination existing against the “Muslim minority in Thrace” in the Greek national justice system, when hiring for the public sector, a 0,5%-contingent in favour of the minority is implemented, the procedure that the management boards of the charity organizations (waqfs) belonging to the minority are elected has been again put into practice and there are currently over fifty registered associations belonging to the minority in Greece.