Problems of Western Thrace Turkish Minority were discussed in the European Parliament

ABTTF once again undersigned an outstanding initative through the conference “Human Rights Violations against Ethnic Turks in Greece” on 28 November 2012 organised in cooperation with the Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace and the Brussels based NGO, Human Rights Without Frontiers International and hosted by François Alfonsi, Member of the European Parliament and the Co-chair of the Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages.

The audiance has witnessed real observations of the host MEP, Mr. Alfonsi from his mission to Western Thrace on 16-20 October 2012 when he was joined by Hans Heinrich Hansen, the President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), who transmitted his experiences as being the moderator of conference.

Willy Fautre, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers International, as the keynote speaker presented the human rights report, the outcome of his analysis on the situation of ethnic Turks in Greece during the fact finding mission 16-20 October 2012.

ABTTF and DEB: The human rights violations against ethnic Turks in Greece for the first time explicitly admitted by an international community in the European Parliament

FUEN President Hans Heinrich Hansen moderated the conference, which received increasing attention of European circles, especially that of MEPs and Brussels based policy groups. The Presdent of ABTTF Halit Habipoğlu and President of Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace Mustafa Ali Çavuş delivered a welcoming speech whereby they expressed gratitute for being able to transmit the problems of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority to the European Parliament through observations and acknowledgement of the international community.

François Alfonsi, hosting MEP of the conference, stated his point of reference as the Turkish Minority of Western Trace is to freely exercise the rights and freedoms it was initially conferred upon and Greece is to comply with European values in terms of its minority policy.

The HRWF Director Willy Fautre presented his report on Western Thrace fact finding mission. Fautre stressed the collective and individual rights and freedoms of the persons belonging to respective minority, defined and guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, regardless of their mother tongue and form and substance of their self-identification.

Cemil Kabza, President of the Western Thrace Minority Culture and Education Foundation and the editor of the daily newspaper, Gündem, expressed the problems Western Thrace Turkish Minority faces in the realm of freedom of expression and media. Kabza outlined the fundamental problem in two categories as the two dailies ‘Gündem’ and ‘Millet’ being accused of publishing unfounded information in the Hara Nikopoulou case thus, sentenced by unproportionate fines of compensation.

Attorney in Law Sinan Kavaz explained the violations in freedom of association through the case of Xanthi Turkish Union, sentenced with closure in 1983 on ground of having the word “Turkish” in its title. Though in 2008 the European Court of Human Rights announced the void of the decision by the Greek, Greece still has not implemented the decision of the European Court of Human Rights.

FUEN President Hans Heinrich Hansen stressed the goodwill of Greece as determinant factor in the resolutions of the problems Turkish minority encounters in the region and he called Greece to stop considering the minority as a thread but to adopt it as an asset to the country.