ABTTF attended the 7th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues

ABTTF and BTAYTD voiced hate speech and hate crimes targeting against the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace at the session

The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated in the 7th session of the Forum on Minority Issues of the United Nations (UN) that was held from 25 to 26 November 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. The Turkish Minority of Western Thrace was represented by the ABTTF International Affairs and Lobby Group members Özkan Reşit ve Funda Reşit and Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (WTMUGA) members Pervin Hayrullah and Aysel Homko at the session entitled “Preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes targeted against minorities” and voiced the hate speech and hate crimes the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace is exposed to.

The perception of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece as “other” must end

Speaking in the first day of the session under the third agenda item “Understanding the root causes of violence and atrocity crimes”, WTMUGA member Aysel Homko said hate crimes are motivated ones because of having crime perpetrators of the victims different backgrounds and characteristics, and in many cases the perpetrators are affected throughout history by mold after learning them in a systematic way but also the perception of “other” plays an important role. She also said in Greece, the country's repressive and discriminatory policies of assimilation rely on the provocative nature of majority press and this causes to be victim of these policies the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, immigrants and others for being different from the Greek Orthodox majority. Moreover, Greece does not take any measures related to the elimination of the Turkish minority grievances which exposes hate speech or crimes, and the reason behind these crimes and motives relies on not only the historical prejudice of offenders but also law-makers, government officials and media entrepreneurs according to Homko. In Western Thrace, hate motivated crimes and hate speech includes examples such as harm, draw provocative slogans on walls, tombs and the Turkish minority associations walls and recently pork cut in front of the worship belongings.

Hate motivated attacks targeting against the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace showed a significant increase in the recent years

Speaking under the fourth agenda item “Improving prevention of violence and atrocity crimes”, member of the ABTTF International Affairs and Lobbying Group member Funda Reşit talked about the rapid rise of far-right extremism and aggressive nationalism in Europe recently which has led to violence and hate crimes against minorities. The extreme rightist groups in Greece have also targeted against the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace of which status and rights have been established by the Lausanne Peace Treaty in 1923 and violence and hate-motivated attacks against persons, properties and places of worship belonging to the Turkish Minority have increased rapidly, which have created an environment of fear and anxiety among the persons belonging to the Minority. Besides, the persistent hate speech in the mainstream media with an explicit manifestation of hatred against Turkey makes the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, of which members are all Greek citizens, a vulnerable target for extreme rightist groups and a striking example of this according to Reşit was the attack of the supporters of the extreme right Golden Dawn Party on 29 March 2013 to Cüneyt Serdar belonging to the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace at Xanthi city centre. Reşit completed her speech making recommendations to Greece, which aim to prevent the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace from hate motivated crimes.