Habipoğlu met with Cem Özdemir, Co-President of the German political party Alliance 90/The Greens

Halit Habipoğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), visited Cem Özdemir, Co-President of the German political party Alliance 90/The Greens, in his office in Berlin and spoke with him about the problems of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and of the Turkish minority in Rhodes and Kos. During the meeting, which lasted approximately one hour and took place in a familiar atmosphere, Habipoğlu handed Özdemir the documentary entitled „Western Thrace Turkish Minority: from past to present“ and the scientific studies describing the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and its problems, and invited him to Western Thrace.

Due to the fact that several reports on Greece were published in 2009 by the bodies of the United Nations and of the Council of Europe, Habipoğlu expressed the importance of this year and informed Özdemir about the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in the mentioned reports. Habipoğlu, while expressing that positive steps had been taken in Greece in the field of minority rights, also noted that the Minority was experiencing a period, in which problems had not been solved in general, but new ones had been added. Furthermore, Habipoğlu stated that with regard to the problem of the former Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code and the freedom of association despite the judgment of the ECHR, no progress had been made. Concerning freedom of religion and conscience, Habipoğlu talked about the problem of the „Appointed Imams Law“, and when the issue of education was raised during the meeting, Habipoğlu noted that with the addition of the problems of bilingual kindergartens, it had been a reached to a deadlock point in the field of education in Western Thrace. In addition, Habipoğlu attached a special importance to the question of political representation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and informed Özdemir about the problems arising from implementation of the national electoral threshold of 3% and from extended constituency application.

Moreover, Habipoğlu took the opportunity to provide Özdemir with information about the problems of the Turkish minority living in Rhodes and Kos, and stated that since the office of mufti had been vacant since 1972, there were no religious leaders of the Muslim community. Habipoğlu also stated that today only one of the twelve mosques in Rhodes was open for religious services, adding that the 7 minority schools in Rhodes and the 3 in Kos were closed down in the course of time, and the Turkish minority was herewith deprived of education in its mother tongue.

Cem Özdemir stated that although Greece was called as the cradle of democracy and older member of the EU, it was having difficulties in applying within its borders the principles of multiculturalism and diversity, which formed the basis of the Union. In addition, Özdemir pointed out that because Greece was considering its own minority as a threat and applying pressure towards it, the Union was also losing its reputation, and expressed his hopes that positive steps were taken during the government of PASOK. Noting that Papanedreou and he were close friends, Özdemir expressed his belief that a will towards change was going to rise during the premiership of Papandreou, and also underlined that during his future meetings, he would carry the problems of the Turkish Minority to the agenda.