During its working visit, ABTTF insisted on the non-execution of the ECtHR judgments on the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace by Greece and conveyed the current developments regarding the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) paid a working visit to Strasbourg on 11-12 October. During its working visit parallel to the Autumn Ordinary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 10-14 October 2022, ABTTF raised the current issues of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, especially the violation of freedom of association and the non-execution of the ECtHR judgments on the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for more than 14 years.
During the two-day working visit, ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı Arık met with Clare Ovey, Head of the Department of the Execution of Judgments of the Council of the Europe, Zoë Bryanston-Cross, responsible for Human Rights Meetings from the Secretariat of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Matthieu Birker, Advisor to the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Kimmo Kiljunen, Head of the National Delegation of Finland to PACE, and Gerhard Ermischer, President of the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe.
During the meetings, ABTTF informed with the latest developments with respect to the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases which includes the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association. In this context, ABTTF reported that the decision of the Court of Cassation of 31 August 2022, which rejected the appeal of the Xanthi Turkish Union dated 29 June 2021, also rejected the appeals of the other two associations. Indicating that basically the Court of Cassation ignored the decision of the Committee of Ministers of June 2022, it was noted that with the rejection of the appeals of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association, the domestic legal processes had been exhausted.
Furthermore, during the meetings, ABTTF drew the attention to the potential risk of this situation, noting that the dominance of the perception of the ‘‘enemy within the country’’ towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace in politics and media has led to an increase in hate speech and hate-based attacks. Indicating that the people representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace have been targeted in the written and visual media recently and hate speech against these people has increased, ABTTF explained that the recent death threat targeting Xanthi SYRIZA Deputy Hüseyin Zeybek in a live broadcast on a local television channel has further increased concerns.
