The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) submitted its written contribution to the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report. ABTTF, which participated in the online consultation process open to civil society organisations and other stakeholders in EU Member States initiated by the European Commission for the 2025 Rule of Law Report, conveyed the issues of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the rights violations it is subjected to in order to contribute to the chapter on Greece in the report to be prepared.
In its written contribution, ABTTF underlined that Greece denies the existence of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and its Turkish ethnic identity and has persistently failed to execute the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for the past 17 years and violated the freedom of association of the Turkish community.
ABTTF noted that the Civil Court of First Instance of Rodopi ruled on 28 May 2024 for the dissolution and revocation of the registration of a fans’ association established in 2022 in Komotini under the name of ‘‘Western Thrace Fenerbahçe Culture and Sports Association’’ and indicated that the dissolution of this association, which has not gone beyond the statute, is a new example of the usurpation of the rights and freedoms of the Turkish community in Western Thrace by the state.
ABTTF further explained that although the Turkish community in Western Thrace has been granted educational autonomy within the boundaries of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the number of Turkish primary schools with autonomous status in the region has decreased over the years due to the closure of Turkish primary schools one by one every year, and that 4 more Turkish primary schools were closed in the 2024-2025 school year and that the number of Turkish primary schools decreased from 188 in 2011 to 86 today.
Moreover, ABTTF pointed out that there is no bilingual Turkish minority kindergarten in the region despite the demand of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and underscored that although the existing building of Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School is insufficient, the Greek authorities ignored the request for a new building and passed the responsibility to each other.
ABTTF indicated that the MPs and prominent representatives of the Turkish community in Western Thrace are exposed to serious hate speech in the mainstream Greek media and stated that Turkish MPs are scapegoated just because they participate in activities of Turkish organisations in Western Thrace or because of their work in Parliament to protect the rights of the Turkish community and unfounded and defamatory news were published about the rights defenders of the Turkish community.
Furthermore, ABTTF reminded that the Turkish community in Western Thrace has been granted religious autonomy in accordance with the international treaties and noted that Greece has violated the religious autonomy of the Turkish community by appointing muftis or regents of muftis in Western Thrace since 1991 and that it does not recognise the muftis elected by the Turkish community. ABTTF noted that despite all the objections of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, the religious autonomy of the Turkish community has been further weakened with the ‘‘Law on the Modernisation of the Mufti Offices’’ adopted by the Greek Parliament in August 2022, which envisages the transformation of the autonomous mufti offices into ordinary public offices by completely connecting them to the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports.
