Human Dimension meeting of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began on 24 September in Warsaw, capital city of Poland. Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated the meetings on minorities. Baris Hasan, Director of ABTTF Academic Research and the Association of Western Thrace Turkish Minority with Higher Education presented ABTTF during the meetings and had the opportunity to bring the problems of the minority on to the OSCE’s agenda.
Baris Hasan made a speech at the third day of the meetings and talked about the human rights violations that took place in 2007 in Western Thrace. Hasan explained the unfair implementations of new “Press Law” and the current situation of “Minority Civil Society Support Association”, called Greece Government, European Union and the international society for solving the problems of the minority.
The concerning speech can be retrieved under this link.
Delegation of Greece to OSCE stated that Greek authorities had answered the arguments that were put forward by ABTTF permanently, adding that Greece would not answer any of the arguments of ABTTF anymore. However, following the speech of Hasan about the new “Press Law”, Greek delegation responded.
Greek Ambassador Pantelis Karkavasis only told the sub-articles of the press law which defended the multilingualism, not stating the most critical point that with the new press law those sub-articles would be void.
We should follow a constructive and active policy
Halit Habipoglu, chairman of ABTTF, assessed the OSCE’s meeting, underlining that ABTTF become an influential institution on international platforms. Habipoglu stated that ABTTF achieved to attract the attention of Greece that permanently ignored Western Thrace Minority Associations.
“We keep ourselves always updated on the problems of Turkish minority, following a very active policy instead of complaining about the same issues all the time. Up to this year, the same topics were discussed at the OSCE’s meetings. That is why Greek delegation expressed their intention not to answer the claims of Western Thrace Minority Associations. Yet, ABTTF put forward current problems of the minorities, making Greek delegation answer ABTTF’s questions. However, their answers were not satisfactory.” said Habipoglu.
Habipoglu underlined that establishments that represented Western Thrace should be constructive, following an active policy to solve the problems of the minority.
