Western Thrace Turkish Minority problems on Dolomiten newspaper!

The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS), representatives of the Danish minority in Germany and representatives of the German minority in Denmark in partnership with the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe(ABTTF), Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (WTMUGA) and Friendship Equality Peace Party (DEB) made a visit to Western Thrace between 19-22 June. A member of the delegation newspaper, the Dolomiten which is the German and Ladin minority newspaper in Italy published an article regarding the Western Thrace Turkish Minority on 16th of June 2014.

'The act of leaving a slaughtered pig's head at the Alexandroupolis mosque is serious humiliation for Turks'

The article written by the Dolomiten newspaper representative Herman Hatto Schmidt mentions the attact on 13th of April 2014 to the Alexandroupoli mosque, where a bloody slaughtered pig's head was left at the mosque and the severe and systematic discrimination suffered by the Turks in Greece over the last decades was noted. With the rise of the NeoNazi Golden Dawn party, attacks on mosques, physical attacks to minority members and attacks on minority associations was also mentioned on the Dolomiten newspaper. Also the ABTTF president and FUEN vice President Halit Habipoglu's statement that 'the minority not only suffers from hate crimes but also from systematic discrimination at every level by the state' was included in the article.

The article mentions the methods used by the state against the minority were very familiar to the South Tyroleans and Greece defines the ethnic Turks firstly as a religious minority. The right of the identity of the Turks is violated whereas the other Muslim groups are mentioned separately as Pomak and Roma the use of the term 'Turk' is forbidden. Dolomiten also mentions the Western Thrace Turkish Minority is not defined as 'Turkish', associations which included in their name the term 'Turkish' were closed down, the right of bilingual kindergarten education was taken away from the minority. Also the right to elect their own religious leader (Mufti) is forbidden to the Turkish minority and the state appoints its own Mufti contrary to the wishes of the minority. Dolomiten also mentions the thousands of minority members who lost their citizenships.

EU term President Greece is way behind Belarus and Ukraine in Europe

The state of the Turkish minority in Greece was mentioned on the U.S. Human Rights and Religious Freedom report and the UN Independent minority expert Gay McDougall's report. Dolomiten mentions the FUEN congress resolution adopted on 10th of May 2014 where Greece was severely criticized. Also EU President Greece fails to ratify the European Regional and Minority Languages Charter as well as the Protection of National Minorities Framework Convention thus, as far as minority rights are concerned Greece lags behind Belarus and Ukraine.

The problems of Turks in Greece are very little known, this can change with the 2015 FUEN congress to be held in Western Thrace

Dolomiten notes that there is very little interest to the problems of Turks in Greece, this can change in 2015 when hundreds of European minority members will attend the 2015 FUEN congress in Western Thrace.