European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will rehear the cases of Bekir Ousta group

ABTTF President, Halit Habip Oğlu: As ABTTF, we will continue to closely monitor this process and put it on the table at international platforms we take part

According to the statement issued on 5 January 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will rehear the cases of Bekir Ousta and others (35151/05), Emin and others (34144/05) and Turkish Association of Xanthi and others (26698/05). This statement means that Greece will be re-judged by the ECtHR on the basis of its non-compliance with 3 court rulings in 2007 and 2008 with regard to the cases of Turkish Association of Xanthi, which was closed down with the claim that its name contained the word ‘Turkish’, along with Cultural Association of the Turkish Women of the Rhodope Prefecture, which was refused to be founded and Evros Minority Youth Associa-tion, which was not registered officially on the grounds that the word ‘minority’ has a vague meaning.

ECtHR presented a notification letter to the Greek authorities on 21 December 2014 demanding in-formation in relation to the cases it inspects under the name of Bekir Ousta group. Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe warned several times Greece for its non-compliance with the ECtHR rulings on the cases of Bekir Ousta and others (2007), Emin and others (2008) and Turkish Association of Xanthi and others (2008). The Committee of Ministers already noted down that the cases of Evros Minority Youth Association (Bekir Ousta and others), Cultural Association of the Turkish Women of the Rhodope Prefecture (Emin and others) and Turkish Association of Xanthi (Turkish Association of Xanthi and others), which was closed down, were not handled again. The Committee also declared that Greek authorities did provide neither any concrete information nor a calendar on what kind of solution mechanisms they are trying to find in order to implement the ECtHR decisions. Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe sent a strong message to Greece on 5 June 2014 in the form of an ‘interim resolution’, which is different from ‘decisions’ be-ing the only form of outcome in earlier meetings, and demanded that Greek authorities should present a calendar regarding the implementation of ECtHR decisions.

With its statement on 5 January 2015, ECtHR asked the plaintiffs who re-applied to the national courts right after the judgments of the ECtHR whether the rulings of the national courts following the decision of the Supreme Court could be considered as creating “new problems”. ECtHR also requested from the parties to take into consideration the interim resolution of the Committee of Ministers dated back to June 2014.

The President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), Halit Habip Oğlu stated, “The ECtHR’s decision to re-evaluate 3 cases that it investigates under the common name of Bekir Ousta group is an expected result for us. Greece is violating the right of our minority to found an association. Despite the ECtHR rulings, the decision to close down the Turkish Association of Xanthi has not yet been lifted and therefore the legal identity has by no means been given to our as-sociation. Additionally, Evros Minority Youth Association and Cultural Association of the Turkish Women of the Rhodope Prefecture were not officially registered yet. Committee of Ministers who has closely been following the process from 2008 onwards strongly warned Greece against its insis-tent violation the ECtHR decisions. ECtHR will now re-evaluate these 3 cases. As ABTTF, we will continue to closely monitor this process and put it on the table at international platforms we take part.”

You can reach the relevant court decision at the following link:
http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/Pages/search.aspx#{"fulltext":["xanthi turkish un-ion"],"itemid":["001-150344"]}