Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated FUEN Minority Education Conference

FUEN Minority Education Conference was held between 31 August- 2 September in Flensburg. Problems of European minorities in education and the solution proposals were discussed during the conference. Ozkan Resit, ABTTF General Secretary and Baris Hasan, Director of Academic Research, and Cemil Kabza, chairman of Western Thrace Turkish minority with higher education association participated the conference. The conference was crucial in means of comparing the Western Thrace Turkish minority improvement in education with other European minorities. In fact, the topic of the conference was the problems of German minority in Denmark and Denmark minority in Germany. However, the problems regarding Western Thrace Turkish minority was one of the issues on the agenda.


Following the long lasting efforts of ABTF to present the problems of the minority on FUEN platform, Hans Heinrich Hansen, chairman of FUEN, underlined the necessity to organize conferences on the problems of South Eastern and Balkan minorities.


FUEN proposes to discuss the problems of Balkan minorities…

Hans Heinrich Hansen, chairman of FUEN, stated that minorities in West Europe are living in better conditions, yet the Balkan minorities were facing serious problems. Thus, “FUEN will concentrate more on the problems of minorities in Balkan region and try to find solutions for their problems” told the Chairman of FUEN.


Ozkan Resit, ABTTF General Secretary, told that current situation in Greece should immediately improve and the Non- Governmental Organizations should set up democracy- based mechanisms to urge the government for solving the minority’s education problems. Resit made a speech following the conference and said “Being here and participating the conference was a very important step for ABTTF as we had the opportunity to discuss the current situation in Western Thrace. We also compare the problems of Western Thrace Turkish minority problems with the other minorities living in Europe”. Every year, FUEN organizes that regional conferences under the hostage of one minority and during the conference, problems of that minority are discussed. In the following annual conferences, problems of Balkan minorities are likely to be the main discussion topic of the conference.