ABTTF attends UN Minority Issues Forum

In the theme "minorities in the context of the humanitarian crisis" forum, ABTTF stated that hate-based attacks against the Western Thrace Turkish Minority increased during the humanitarian and economic crisis in Greece.

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended the 9th Session of the UN Minority Issues Forum in Geneva, UN House on 24-25 November 2016. Melek Kırmacı Arık, ABTTF International Relations Director representing Western Thrace Turkish Minority participated in the session entitled "Minorities in the context of the Humanitarian Crisis". Frank de Boer, FUEN Brussels Office Officer and Legal Adviser of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), followed the meeting. ABTTF is a member of FUEN.

In a session where the protection of minority rights during the humanitarian crisis and the protection of minority rights to prevent the humanitarian crisis were discussed in detail, ABTTF carried out hate attacks against the Western Thrace Turkish Minority. Speaking at a session on the protection of minority rights in order to prevent the humanitarian crisis, Melek Kirmaci said that the Greek National Commission on Human Rights, in his speech to the UN Human Rights Council on the adoption of the 2nd Report of the Universal Periodic Review of Greece (UPR) racism and intolerance against vulnerable groups are an important problem in the economic and refugee crisis environment. ABTTF, who said that the Western Thrace Turkish minority, which is known as a religious minority rather than an ethnic group, has become the target of racist attacks in recent years, that this issue was also expressed in the US International Religious Freedom Report. As an example of an attack on places of worship, ABTTF, who voiced the attack on Mahmutaga Mosque in Gumulcine in April 2015, that there had been no ethnic or religious violence in the region before but there was an increasing tension in recent years. ABTTF recommended the establishment of an effective measures to prevent racism and discrimination and an institutional mechanism to deal with minority issues within the national authorities concerned. Drawing attention to the importance of creating a grievance mechanism with the minority to prevent discrimination, ABTTF wanted Greek authorities to take result-oriented measures.

Speaking during the protection of minorities during the humanitarian crisis, Greece spoke about the refugee crisis and expressed the legal steps taken in fighting racism. Greece, which continues to refuse the ethnic Turkish identity of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority and uses the phrase "Muslim minority in Thrace", claimed that the hate-based attacks on the Western Thrace Turkish Minority are not connected with the subject or the reality in the region.