Question for written answer on the violation of the freedom of association of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace to the European Commission

The MEPs, who tabled the written question, underlines Greece persistently refuses to implement the ECtHR judgments.

The members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Tatjana Ždanoka (Latvia, the Greens/EFA), Judith Sargentini (Netherlands, the Greens/EFA) and Jordi Sebastià (Spain, the Greens/EFA) tabled a question for written answer entitled “Non-execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights by Greece” to the European Commission.

In their joint question, the MEPs the Federation of Western Turks in Europa (ABTTF) had already met within the framework of its lobbying activities as an NGO at the EP, note the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered several rulings concerning the freedom of association in cases concerning minority NGOs in Greece. The three MEPs state in cases such as Sidiropoulos and Others v. Greece (26695/95), Tourkiki Enosi Xanthis and Others v. Greece (no. 26698/05), Emin and Others v. Greece (no.34144/05), Bekir-Ousta and Others v. Greece (no. 35151/05) and Macedonian House of Civilization v. Greece (no. 1295/10), the Court found that Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached, adding this notwithstanding, the Greek authorities have refused to execute the Court’s rulings in such cases, and to register the minority associations concerned, in some instances for more than twenty years and only after the breach had been noted a second time.

The MEPs Ždanoka, Sargentini and Sebastià ask the Commission whether it is aware of the regarding situation, the failure to execute the rulings of the ECtHR does indicate a systemic threat to the rule of law in Greece and it is going to activate the rule of law framework in the case of Greece.

As is known, the ECtHR held unanimously in 2007 and 2008 through its three judgments with regard to the cases of the Turkish Union of Xanthi, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Region of Rodopi and Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association which had been either dissolved or not registered by the Greek courts on the grounds that their names included the words “Turkish” or “minority” that Greece had violated the right of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace to freedom of association. However, Greece persistently refuses to implement the regarding judgments of the ECtHR.