Ahmet Haciosman brought the issue of former Article 19 on the agenda of the Assembly Commission

On 10 February 2010, Pasok deputy of Rhodope, Ahmet Haciosman, raised the issue of Western Thrace Turks, who have lost their citizenship due to the former Article 19 of the Greek Citizen-ship Law, on the agenda of the Commission for Public Administration, Public Order and Justice. Haciosman claimed that an additional substance should be included to the bill, returning stateless members of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace their Greek citizenship, towards the Com-mission, where the draft law about granting citizenship to collateral and third-country nationals, who have been residing legally for years in Greece, has been discussed.

Haciosman expressed that a number Western Thrace Turks were expatriated in an arbitrary way, due to former article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law, and noted, that many victims of the men-tioned law were Greek minority members. In addition, Haciosman mentioned that since Article 19 was not repealed retroactively in 1998, today a number of expatriated members of the minor-ity are faced with negative consequences. Haciosman, who said that a definite solution of the problem should be reached, also asked to carefully review his proposal at the commission, which deals with the issue of the draft granting citizenship to immigrants which have been residing in the country legally.

Habipoğlu: ABTTF moved the issue of Article 19 to the international arena

With regard to the issue, Halit Habipoglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) stated the following: “The fact that Mr. Deputy Ahmet Haciosman has brought up the issue of the Western Thrace Turkish minority at the commission, during a period where the PASOK government has prepared a study with the aim to improve the issue, is an im-portant development. As it is known, ABTTF has conducted an important study about the issue of former Article 19, at the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, and organized a signa-ture campaign for the solution of the problem. With regard to the issue, ABTTF moved the problems of former Article 19 to the international arena in 2005, by meeting the Secretary Gen-eral of the Council of Europe of the period, Terry Davis. With the ongoing process, ABTTF also met with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg. More-over, ABTTF managed that a written question with regard to the former Article 19 had been submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. In addition, the fact that the reports, prepared by the PACE members Michel Hunault and Boriss Cilevics, contain the issue of former Article 19, indicate the success of ABTTF’s long-term studies.”