ABTTF President: “The rulers of our country, who do not respect the rights of our community, who are Greek and EU citizens, and who have trampled on the rule of law in recent years, try to lecture other countries on similar issues as if these things never happen. Minority rights and the rule of law must be fully and completely respected not only by the EU candidate countries but also by the current EU Member States, first and foremost by our country.”
At the 2nd intergovernmental conference held in Luxembourg on 15 October 2024, the first chapter in Albania’s accession negotiations to the European Union (EU) was opened.
Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgios Gerapetritis indicated before the conference that the first package of chapters opened for Albania, concerning fundamental rights and the rule of law, should include the rights of minorities, including the ethnic Greek minority in the country.
Gerapetitris included the following in his statement: ‘‘This position is now a common position, a registered common position of the 27 Member States of the European Union. Greece will closely follow this process and will intervene, when necessary, in the hope that other states in the Western Balkans will follow this path’’.
“We understand our country’s sensitivity to the rights of the Greek minority in Albania and it is natural for it to do so as the motherland of the Greek minority. When we read the statement of Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerapetritis, we think of the systematic violation of the rights and freedoms of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in our country Greece, which has been a member of the EU since 1981, and the non-execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our three associations by our country for more than 16 years. What a contradiction! The rulers of our country, who do not respect the rights of our community, who are Greek and EU citizens, and who have trampled on the rule of law in recent years, try to lecture other countries on similar issues as if these things never happen. Minority rights and the rule of law must be fully and completely respected not only by the EU candidate countries but also by the current EU Member States, first and foremost by our country’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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