ABTTF
EN
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER Bülten İcon
Batı Trakya

The failure of Greece to execute the judgments of the ECtHR regarding the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases were discussed in the ‘Facts about our Country’ programme

25.03.2022

The seventh part of the online programme series titled ‘Facts about our Country’ of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) was broadcast on 24 March 2022.

The guest of the seventh programme was Ahmet Kara, Attorney of Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases, which concern the freedom of association of the three associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, namely the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association.

Kara answered questions from the programme’s moderator, Nihan Ayan of the ABTTF Athens Office, about the failure to execute the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments on the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases for the past 14 years by Greece.

Kara stated that the Xanthi Turkish Union, the first association of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, which was established on 14 April 1927 and will celebrate its 95th anniversary this year, operated smoothly until 1983, noting that the association, which was closed due to the word ‘Turkish’ in its name, had been fighting for 39 years and that Greece had not executed the 2008 ECtHR judgment as regards the association.

Noting that the three associations filed an appeal before the national courts for the execution of the ECtHR judgments following changes to the Code of Civil Procedure in Greece in 2017 that made it possible to re-opening of their cases, Kara said that the Court of Cassation rejected the request for the restoration of the official legal entity of the Xanthi Turkish Union in June 2021, and that he thought that the Court of Cassation had delivered a political decision, not a legal one.

Kara stated that a march was organised in July 2021 to protest the decision of the Court of Cassation on the Xanthi Turkish Union which ignored the ECtHR judgments, with the permission of the official authorities, and that seven months later, leading figures, including the president of the Xanthi Turkish Union and the religious leaders of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, were investigated and called to testify. Kara added that Ozan Ahmetoğlu, President of the Xanthi Turkish Union, testified on grounds of spreading false news and threatening public order in accordance with the provisions of the penal code, and that the investigation was ongoing.

Noting that the appeals of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association were discussed at the Court of Cassation in October 2021 and that they expected the decision to be announced in June 2022, he said that he did not think the Court of Cassation would deliver a positive judgment on these two associations following its negative judgment regarding the Xanthi Turkish Union.

Moreover, Kara indicated that they expect and hope that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will initiate the infringement procedure against Greece, which has persistently refused to execute the ECtHR judgments regarding the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases, adding that members of the three associations in the case group want to be treated as equal citizens of the country.

You can watch the entire programme, which was broadcast live simultaneously on ABTTF’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, by clicking on the links below in English and Greek:

YouTube English recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VQDP_BPXrM&t=31s 

YouTube Greek recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TucGcA0ygTw 

Facebook English recording: 
https://www.facebook.com/939989616164959/videos/675528443660579

Facebook Greek recording: 
https://www.facebook.com/939989616164959/videos/988424712112737

PHOTO GALLERY