ABTTF participated to conference on ‘Promotion of national minorities’

The influence of mother countries on national minorities was discussed at the conference where the issue of national minority policies of states was at the core

Federation of Western Thrace Turks (ABTTF) attended to the conference entitled “Promotion of national minorities by their ‘mother countries’ in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21st century” and took place in Berlin on 9-11 November 2016. ABTTF International Affairs Director Melek Kırmacı Arık also took part in the conference organised by Federal Institute for Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS) and Institute for Foreign Affairs (IFA) in partnership with OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and various universities in Europe. The national minority policies of states were discussed from a multilateral and comparative framework at the conference and the situation of national minorities in different countries were put on the table.

Hartmut Koschyk, Federal Government Commissioner for Matters Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities, provided the opening speech of the conference where he explained with examples that Germany gave great importance not only to German minorities outside the country but all national minorities. Koschyk told that one of the 3 priorities of German Presidency of OSCE 2016 was the issue of national minorities keeping in mind the bridging role of them. He said that that’s why they organised additional human dimension meeting in Vienna on the same dates.

FUEN President Loránt Vincze and FUEN Vice-president Olga Martens presented a speech at the conference that hosted numerous social scientists as speakers.

ABTTF: There is no official dialog mechanism with Turkish Minority of Western Thrace because of an approach based on historical prejudices, the fact that there is no minority protection regime is causing a dilemma at national level

During the session on multiple and mutual approaches in promoting minorities, Prof. Dr. Petra Roter, Chair of Advisory Council for the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), criticized the approach of Greece who signed but not ratified the convention on the matter of the right of self-identification of minorities. ABTTF International Affairs Director Melek Kırmacı Arık took the floor at this session and talked about the various problems that Turkish Minority of Western Thrace whose status and rights were determined by Lausanne Treaty faces in different fields. She criticised the fact that there was no official dialog mechanism today on the solution to minority problems because of an approach based on historical prejudices. Reminding that Greece signed but not ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), which is one of the fundamental documents on protection of national minorities, Kırmacı said this mechanism could not be implemented for this reason. As there is no protection system or mechanism at the EU level either, Kırmacı claimed that this was a dilemma for Turkish Minority of Western Thrace as well as other national minorities.