On July 9th, 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Zeybek v. Greece (Application No: 46368/06)) sentenced Greece to money penalty. Bedriye Zeybek had prosecuted Greece due to Greece’s refusal to provide Mrs. Zeybek as “the mother of big family” life long pension. The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) to the European Convention on Human Rights, and in conjunction with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Convention. Additionally, under the Article 41 (fair satisfaction), the Court ruled Greece to pay 13,455 Euro for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and 2,500 Euro for other expenses.
Mrs. Zeybek, the applicant born in 1951, was denaturalized by a decision of Ministry of Interior in 1984 when she was visiting Turkey with her family. Following the abolishment of Article 19 in 1998, Mrs. Zeybek and her family applied for naturalization in November 1999. Yet, Zeybek’s daughter, İlkay Zeybek’s application was refused as she was married and under statutory age. Zeybek’s and her other daughters’ application were accepted.
With the birth of her fourth daughter in 1982, Mrs. Zeybek became “the mother of a large family”. On 19 December 2001, Mrs.Zeybek applied for a pension, payable for life, as the mother of a large family, in accordance with law no. 1982/1990. However, her application was rejected on 22 November 2002 on the ground that her four children did not all have Greek nationality. On 22 May 1996 the Supreme Administrative Court decided that Article 21 of the Constitution – which protects the family and motherhood – was relevant only to the need to preserve and promote the Greek nation and did not cover foreign families living in Greece. However, European Court of Human Rights stated that even if one or more of the children ceased to be attached to the family and regardless of the children’s nationality (provided the mother lived permanently and legally in Greece), the status did not change. Thus, the Court found it surprising that the Supreme Administrative Court, in its judgment, had associated the granting of such protection with the “need to preserve and promote the Greek nation” – a criterion based not on Greek nationality but on national origin.
With regard to the judgment of ECHR, Halit Habipoglu, President of ABTTF, stated that “The case of Mrs. Zeybek has great importance for Western Thrace Turkish Minority. Remember that between 1955 and 1998, 60.000 members of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace were denaturalized, losing all their citizenship rights. After the abolishment of the related law, the ones who applied for the Greek citizenship were naturalized yet they lost their acquired rights. Now, the process continues very slowly and with high costs. Greece should give all the citizenship rights back to the persons who were deprived of their citizenship under the former Article 19 of the Greek Nationality Code without making any distinction between the ones still living as stateless in Greece and the ones who acquired the citizenship of a third country.”
Press release and the Chamber judgment on Zeybek v. Greece case can be retrieved here.
