ABTTF participated in 6th Fundamental Rights Platform Meeting

Anti-discrimination policies in the EU were discussed along with participation of more than 200 civil society representatives, Eurocracts and MEP

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated at 6th Fundamental Right Platform meeting on 24-26 April 2013. Taken place in Vienna, the meeting was attended by Dr. Sebahattin Abdurrahman, ABTTF Executive Board member in charge of foreign affairs and Melek Kırmacı Arık, ABTTF International Affairs Director.

Hate crime is a daily reality throughout the EU!

The annual meeting, which hosted more than 200 specialists including NGO representatives, Eurocrats and Euro deputies, centered on anti-discrimination policies in the EU. Hate crime was the subject of agenda for the second day of meeting when Joanna Perry, Hate Crime Officer from Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), underlined the shortcoming in data collection, which obliges OSCE to solely depend on reports from the civil society in times when the member states do not provide with official input.

Judith Sunderland, Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch, put forth that in Greece unregistered immigrants and Roma are subject to hate crime at highest levels among others. The monitoring and prosecution of the perpetrators fail to a great extent given the shortcomings in the legal system, according to Sunderland.

ABTTF: Western Thrace Turkish Minority has become a target for extreme right in Greece

ABTTF International Affairs Director Melek Kırmacı raised the current issue by referring to increasing number of hate motivated attacks to Western Thrace Turkish Minority in Greece. The supporters of Golden Dawn, extreme right political party in Greek Parliament, attacked in September 2012 to a member of the minority, which led the perpetrator’s being sentenced to a 8 months of imprisonement with an eventual suspension of the fine for 3 years, indicated Kırmacı. Upon this case, ABTTF, confirming the previous findings about Greece’s not providing sufficient official input on hate crimes, asked for an elaborated explanation on how FRA and OSCE would coordinate their works on advanced data collection.

In response to ABTTF, Sunderland stressed the obligation of Greece for protecting and safeguarding all minority groups and every member of the society against hate cime. FRA Head of Department on Freedoms and Justice Joanna Goodey, upon ABTTF’s remark on the subject, asked if the Western Thrace Turkish Minority was covered by the EU Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS). In follow up with the negative answer, Goodey attested upcoming editions would address the minority groups that were not covered in the previous studies.