ABTTF President: “For the past 16 years, our country has persistently failed to execute the three ECtHR judgments with respect to the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, known as Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases. We once again call on our country to urgently execute the aforementioned ECtHR judgments and we request the government to take all necessary steps without further delay to restore the official legal status of the Xanthi Turkish Union, which has been struggling for 41 years, and to realise the official registration of our other two associations by the national courts’’.
In his statement, PASOK-KINAL candidate for chairmanship Michail Katrinis pointed out that the independence and quality of the judiciary and the speed of judicial decisions are structural elements of the rule of law and that the judiciary must be free and independent. He further emphasised that interference in the independence of the judiciary harms the rule of law in Greece, which is confirmed by the developments in the wiretapping and Tempi cases as well as the condemnation of the European Parliament (EP).
On the issue of speeding up justice, Katrinis stressed the need for bold and flexible changes and modernisation of the procedure, which is governed by an outdated framework that needs to be replaced and noted that decisions must have a clear and concise rationale in order to be issued quickly.
“We fully agree with the statements made by Katrinis that the judiciary must be free and independent in our country Greece. The rule of law in our country has recently been systematically violated as a result of direct governmental interventions in the judiciary and the politicisation of judicial decisions. One of the most important indicators of the rule of law is undoubtedly respect for the right to freedom of association and the execution of ECtHR judgments. However, for the past 16 years, our country has persistently failed to execute the three ECtHR judgments with respect to the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, known as the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases. Despite the amendments made to the Code of Civil Procedure in 2017 following the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, allowing the ECtHR judgments to be recognised by the national courts of our country, the Court of Cassation rejected the applications of the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi, and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association. We once again call on our country to urgently execute the aforementioned ECtHR judgments and we request the government to take all necessary steps without further delay to restore the official legal status of the Xanthi Turkish Union, which has been struggling for 41 years, and to realise the official registration of our other two associations by the national courts’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
