On 15 September 2009, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released the 4th country report on Greece. The Commission explained that worrying problems were still continuing even though Greece had announced to make encouraging development.
ECRI notes with concern that problems, which arised from the deprivation of citizenship due to the former Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law, are still largely continuing. The Commission states that excessive and unjustified delays in the process of application for regaining citizenship or naturalisation of Western Thrace Muslims who lost their citizenship were reported in the 2005 Greek Obusman report relating to stateless people.
The Commission demands Greece to do more for the elimination of lack of quality education in Western Thrace. Noting that improvement of educational quality is specifically emphasized by representatives of the Minority, ECRI particularly includes the problem of the Thessaloniki Special Pedagogical Academy in its report. Furthermore, ECRI also points out that the representatives of the Minority have expressed that neither the need for bilingual kindergardens and additional minority secondary schools, nor many other problems have been solved yet.
The statement that “the issue of recognizing the freedom of association of the Turkish community, which is one of the three elements of the Muslim Minority in Western Thrace, has still not been resolved" is also stated in the report.
In the report´s special section on the Muslim minority in Western Thrace, ECRI includes the problems of the appointment of Muftis and selection of foundation´s managing committees. In addition, it states the opinion of the Minority representatives about issues that have arised from the law of 3536/2007 and the appointment of 240 imams.
ECRI conveys to have received conflicting reports from the Greek authorities and some representatives of the Minority on the identity of Pomaks and Roma in the region, and recommends that the Greek authorities ensure the respect and enforcement of the right to self-identification for everyone living in Western Thrace.
With regard to the topic, Halit Habipoglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), stated that “ECRI’s 4th country report on Greece plays an important role in conveying the problems the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace even though the problems presented in the report are mistaken and contain lack of information. It is also a positive step to explicitly include opinion of the Minority representatives in the report. In terms of international action, we are encouraged by the fact that ABTTF written statements submitted to sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council were taken into account“.
ECRI's 4th country report on Greece can be retrieved here.
