The Xanthi Turkish Union trial was postponed

On 27 October 2009, the Thrace Court of Appeal discussed the case of the Xanthi Turkish Union and decided to postpone the case to 8 October 2010. According to the news of daily Birlik, the Xanthi Turkish Union, which was shut down in 1986 as result of lawsuit filed by the Governorship of Xanthi with the claim “Turkish people do not exist in Western Thrace”, had appealed to the lower court of Xanthi with the request to cancel the judgment.* But the concerning court rejected the demand. Thus, the Xanthi Turkish Union applied to the Thrace Court of Appeal, but the Court accepted the rationale that lawyers representing the Governor of Xanthi were not prepared, and decided to postpone the trial to October 2010.

Speaking to the daily Birlik, Mehmet Hacıhalil, lawyer of the Xanthi Turkish Union, expressed that hopes related to the hearing which was going to be held on 8 October 2010, were still continuing. In addition, he noted that the absence of the Federation of Associations of Northern Greece at the court was a positive sign. Hacıhalil stated: “I expect Greece to recognize us. We expect them to embrace us, to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and to pay our compensation. We do not expect anything else”.

On 27 March 2008, the ECHR noted the closure of the Xanthi Turkish Union because it contained the word “Turkish” in its name as an inequity and declared in its judgment that Greece violated Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights by closing associations belonging to the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace. In June 2008, at the end of the three-months objection period, the Greek Government announced to take the case to the ECHR Grand Chamber. The ECHR pre-commission, consisting of 5 judges, denied the application of Greece.

With regard to the issue, Halit Habipoglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), stated that “It is regrettable that the problem in relation to the legal status of the Xanthi Turkish Union, has not been resolved despite the ECHR judgment of March 2008. We hope that the Xanthi Turkish Union continuing its judicial struggle will regain its pre- 1983 legal status in October 2010”.

Photo: Daily Birlik