ABTTF
EN
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER Bülten İcon
Batı Trakya

ABTTF attended the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting

29.03.2022

At the meeting, ABTTF indicated the structural and systematic discrimination in Greece with notably hate speech targeting the Turkish community in Western Thrace, especially in politics and media.

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Supplementary Humanitarian Dimension Meeting held in Vienna, Austria on 28-29 March 2022, representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace.

Deniz Servantie of the ABTTF Brussels Representative office attended the meeting titled ‘International co-operation to address violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law’, organized by the Polish OSCE Chairmanship and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). 

The representatives of the OSCE participating States, OSCE institutions, international organisations and non-governmental organisations and expert researchers attended the meeting, which began with the opening remarks of Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Zbigniew Rau and OSCE/ODIHR Director Matteo Mecacci.

Intervening at the second session of the meeting titled ‘Investigation and documentation of international humanitarian and human rights law violations’, ABTTF underlined that Greece does not recognise the Turkish community in Western Thrace as a national minority and rejects the ‘Turkish’ identity, noting that hate speech in politics is part of structural and systematic discrimination against the Turkish community.

Noting that ABTTF reports hate speech and hate crimes targeting the Turkish community in Western Thrace to the OSCE on a regular basis every year and that these are included in the OSCE Hate Crimes Report, ABTTF called upon the OSCE participating States to conduct support and training programmes for individuals or groups with different backgrounds for improving cooperation with NGOs in reporting and data collection to ensure that government and civil society are actively engaged in the implementation of OSCE commitments.

Using its right of reply, the Greek delegation reiterated the official view of the Greek state on the Turkish community in Western Thrace, indicating that Greece recognises ‘the Muslim minority in (Western) Thrace’ and that the minority is a religious minority. Moreover, Greece further claimed that the members of the minority have many rights and are actively involved in the political debates.  
 

PHOTO GALLERY