The problem of 19. Article has come to order in European Council Parliamentary Assembly (PACE)

Witten, 18.05.2007
ABTTF Press Release

The problem of 19. Article has come to order in European Council Parliamentary Assembly (PACE)

Members of Turkish Minority of Western Thrace who were aggrieved by 19. Article have come to order with the motion which is related with minorities, that has been made in the Spring Session of European Council Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) between 16-20 April 2007. Results of racist discrimination have been expressed by attribution to ex-Article 19 of Greek Citizenship Law in the 8. article of the motion that has been submitted by Latvian parliamenter Boriss Cilevics. When 19. Article came to or-der in PACE, Halit Habipoğlu, the President of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, stated in his press statement that aggrivations and injustices issued from 19. Article have started to come to European politicians’ order, too.

ABTTF has begun to take the results of lobby activities.

Habipoğlu declared that ABTTF has begun to take the results of decisive lobby activities that have been made in past and having been continued today, and he said that, the promise got from Mr. Cilevics after the meeting made in the past had been delivered and the case of 19. Article had been mooted. In addition to this, Habipoğlu said campaigns such as visits to European Council, sign cam-paigns for victims of 19. Article, postcard and e-mail sendings have been effective and very important. Habipoğlu indicated that it has been satisfactory for ABTTF and victims of 19. Article to see positive effects of these visits and campaigns today.

Motion given to PACE by Latvian parliamenter Boriss Cilevics in 19 April is composed of 9 articles and draws attention to problems of minorities living in European countries. The most notable article of the motion is 8. article, then. In the 8. article, it is stated that non-recognition of some minorities in Europe by some states still remained a major problem, injustices Turkish Minority of Western Thrace living in Greece faced with have been showed as example and annoyances of members of Turkish Mi-nority who had been deprived of Greek citizenship have been emphasized clearly. Motion will be discussed and settled in June in European Council Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).

Then, Halit Habipoğlu stated in his release that they believed problem of 19. Article which came to or-der of PACE would keep going to come to Europe’s order hereafter, and he said submission of problem of 19. Article as a motion in PACE was an important start. Habipoğlu thanked to Latvian par-liamenter Boriss Cilevics because of his sensitivity and he stated that susceptibilities of 20 parliamenters, Hungarian, German, Dutch, Serbian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Azerbeijani, Finn, Czech, Irish, Latvian and Ukrainian, who signed the motion, to practices of racist 19. Article in Greece were very important. Habipoğlu mentioned the importance of lobby activities of ABTTF and he said that “this motion given to PACE is a success of decisive and disciplined lobby activities of our Federation”. He implied that they would continue to lobby activities by gaining power from this development, and he said “importance and effectiveness of lobby activities have been proved once again wirh this mo-tion”.

Habipoğlu said signing of 20 parliamenters from 12 different European countries the motion would lead the problem of 19. Article to come order to whole Europe and he told that “from now on, Greece can not hide negativities emerging from 19. Article from agenda any more, and can not escape from restituting the rights of victims of this embarrassing policy”. Habipoğlu explained that it was clearly emphasized in the motion that “former Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law allowed for depriva-tion of citizenship on the basis of residence abroad of Greek nationals-but only those of non-Greek ethnic origin (this provision has been abolished, but the restoration of citizenship for those more than 45,000 nationals who were deprived of their Greek citizenship on the grounds of this provision is still pending). Similarly, the rights to restore citizenship and to reclaim property of those Greek citizens who fled during the Civil War, as established by law, also depend on their ethnic origin” and he stated that these statements in the motion would had lumbered Greece and it would let pressures on Greece rise.

Greece must restitute the rights of the victims of 19. Article now

Habipoğlu ended his statement by saying “the motin submitted to PACE shows that European public also realised injustices that Turkish Minority of Western Thrace faced with and the case came to order of European parliamenters, too. Consequently, Greece can not ignore annoyances that victims of 19. Article had any more. The rights of Western Thracian Turks who were deprived of their Greek citizen-ships must be restitute, annoyances emerging from 19. Article must be compensated by the state”.