The sixth part of the online programme series titled “Facts about Our Country” of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) was broadcast on 17 March 2022.
The guest of the sixth programme was Ilker Tsavousoglou, Legal Counsel of Bekir Ousta and Others Group of Cases, in which are included associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, which were closed and/or not registered by the Greek national courts, included the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association.
Tsavousoglou answered the questions posed by the programme’s moderator, ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı Arık, with respect to the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) convicted Greece of violating the freedom of association in 2008.
Tsavousoglou, who briefed on the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases, noted that the case of the Xanthi Turkish Union in this group was the flagship because it was the oldest association established by members of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and was closed by the national authorities in 1983. Tsavousoglou added that the other two associations in the group of cases were not registered by national authorities.
Pointing out that the decision of the Greek Court of Cassation on 29 June 2021 contained two problematic basic messages, Tsavousoglou indicated that the first was a reluctance to challenge ECtHR case-law on human rights, and the other was the reluctance of the national legal system to execute the ECtHR judgments concerning the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases.
In response to the question of which ways the Xanthi Turkish Union, founded in 1927, could pursue after the Court of Cassation rejected its appeal for the restoration of its official legal entity following the ECtHR judgment, Tsavousoglou stated that the steps taken by the Xanthi Turkish Union were to take all the legal and democratic means decisively to ensure the restoration of its legal status, and this included the full and effective execution of the relevant ECtHR judgment.
Underlining that the legal demands of the Western Thrace Turkish associations in the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases have not changed and that they are to be recognised and to operate officially, Tsavousoglou said that the marginalisation of the three associations has gained an international dimension.
Tsavousoglou noted that the negative final decision rendered by the Court of Cassation with respect to the Xanthi Turkish Union will likely set a precedent for the cases of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association, but that a positive decision in the cases related to these two associations could help initiate dialogue towards a holistic decision in the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases.
Noting that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of can initiate the infringement procedure against a contracting state that does not execute the final judgment of the ECtHR under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Tsavousoglou underscored that 14 years is enough time to execute the binding judgment of an international body, and that it would be good to see the sincere approaches of the national authorities towards the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace to resolve the existing nodes.
You can watch the entire English-language programme, which was broadcast live at the same time on ABTTF’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, by clicking on the links below:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka5R6LtuCz4&t=58s
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/939989616164959/videos/362721882387574
