Study Visit to Brussels by ABTTF

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made a study visit to the heart of European Union, Brussels, on 8 March, 2017. Within the scope of the study visit President of the ABTTF, Halit Habip Oğlu accompanied by ABTTF Head Office Manager, K. Engin Soyyılmaz met with European Parliament deputy members(MEPs); member of Hungarian minority in Slovakia, Pal Csaky (EPP, Slovakia), member of Hungarian minority in Romania, Csaba Sogor (EPP, Romania), member of Russian minority in Latvia, Tatjana Zdanoka (Greens/EFA, Latvia), member of Swedish minority in Finland, Nils Torvalds (ALDE, Finland) and member of German minority in Italy, Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy), and the Director of European Network Against Racism (ENAR) of which ABTTF is also the member, Michael Privot.

Current developments regarding Western Thrace Turks conveyed

Within the scope of the meetings conducted during the study visit while current developments related to Western Thrace Turks were conveyed, issues of collaboration for 2017 were also addressed. President of ABTTF, Halit Habip Oğlu stated that the Greek Government would put into practice a pilot project implementation which envisage a Western Thrace Turk, graduate of a higher education institution in Greece acquiring languages of Turkish and Greek to work together with a Greek kindergarten teacher at six state kindergartens in the region where children of Western Thrace Turkish community live. ABTTF President reported that with this initiative the Turkish community’s demand for having bilingual minority schools would insistently be ignored and educational autonomy will have once again been interfered.

Habip Oğlu who stated that the muftis selected by the Western Thrace Turkish society are yet not recognized, he also expressed in the light of recent developments that the application regarding selection and right after appointment of muftis by religious officials who were recruited as civil servants on contract pursuant to "240 İmam Law" aims at gradually abolishing religious autonomy at large.

Habip Oğlu pointed out that racist and discriminative discourses aiming at Western Thrace Turks persist. He also stated that a recent example for these discourses is the explanation given by the President of the Hellenic Basketball Federation, Giorgos Vasilakopoulos regarding the Hellenic Basketball Cup final match where Giorgos Vasilakopoulos informed that a decision was made not to hold the aforementioned match in Xanthi unlike the previous planning due to the concerns that Western Thrace Turks would create violence during the final match.