Working visit by ABTTF to Strasbourg

At the meetings held within the scope of the visit, the problems of the Turkish community in Western Thrace awaiting solution, primarily implementation by Greece of the ECtHR judgments, were expressed.

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) paid a working visit to Strasbourg on 23-24 January 2018 parallel to the Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu accompanied by Melek Kırmacı Arık, International Affairs Director of ABTTF, had a range of meetings with the members of PACE and officers of the Council of Europe during the working visit.

On Tuesday, 23 January 2018, ABTTF President Habip Oğlu first met with Dimitrios Kalogiros and Nikolaos Sitaropoulos from the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR of the Council of Europe. At the meeting Habip Oğlu exchanged his opinion on the law adopted by the Greek Parliament on 10 October 2017 regarding implementation of the ECtHR judgments against Greece by the Greek local courts and conveyed his concerns about the subject matter. Habip Oğlu stated the Xanthi Turkish Union, which has been closed down on the ground that it has the word “Turkish” in its name and won the case against Greece at the ECtHR in 2008, has already applied to the Court of Appeal of Thrace following the adoption of the law, and the case will be heard on 9 February 2018. He requested from the Committee of the Ministers of the Council of Europe to examine further the Bekir-Ousta Group cases pertinent to the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace.

During the meeting with Evangelos Venizelos, member of the Greek national delegation, who is drafting the report on execution of the ECtHR judgments by the member states of the Council of Europe, ABTTF President Habip Oğlu conveyed the problems of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the field of freedom of association and said with the restrictions brought in by the new law adopted by the Greek Parliament, the way to the execution of the ECtHR judgments has been obstructed.

On the same day, ABTTF President Habip Oğlu met with the Chairperson of the Turkish national delegation at the PACE and Former Minister of Youth and Sports Akif Çağatay Kılıç and congratulated him on his new assignment. At the meeting, Habip Oğlu introduced Kılıç the ABTTF and the Working Group of Turkic Minorities and Communities (TAG) within the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) and conveyed the problems of the Turkish community in Western Thrace.

ABTTF President Habip Oğlu met on Wednesday, 24 January 2018 with the members of the Turkish national delegation at the PACE Mustafa Yeneroğlu, Cemalettin Kani Torun and Zuhal Topçu and the Acting Speaker of the Parliament of Kosovo and deputy of the Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo (KDTP) Müferra Şinik. During the meeting, the situation of the Turkish minorities and communities living in the Balkans were discussed.

During the meeting with the Former Federal Minister of Justice of Germany Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, ABTTF President Habip Oğlu introduced her the Turkish community in Western Thrace and conveyed its problems He noted Greece constantly intervenes in the educational and religious autonomy of the Western Thrace Turks.

During the last meeting of the working visit with the Chairperson of the PACE Sub-Committee on the Rights of Minorities Damien Thiery, ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu, provided him with information on the problems of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and articulated the ECtHR judgments related to the associations of the Western Thrace Turkish community has not been implemented by Greece since 2008.