The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) delivered a presentation at the event titled ‘‘Name, Identity and Memory: 40 Years Since the Final Stage of the Change of Muslim-Turkish Names in Bulgaria’’ hosted by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Turkish minority in Bulgaria Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Renew Europe, Bulgaria) in Brussels on 21 May 2025.
ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu, ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı and Deniz Servantie from ABTTF Brussels Office participated in the event held at the EP.
The event was also attended by Member of the European Parliament and President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) Loránt Vincze (EPP, Romania) and European Commission Coordinator on combating anti-Muslim hatred Marion Lalisse.
In his opening remarks, Kyuchyuk noted that the Turks of Bulgaria were subjected to assimilation by the communist regime in the 1970s and 1980s and that their names were forcibly changed.
Chair of the Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages Vincze emphasised the crucial importance of raising minority issues and the need to include minority issues in the shared competence of EU Member States and the European Commission.
Habip Oğlu noted that Greece, one of the oldest members of the EU, denies the ethnic Turkish identity and existence of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and aims to eliminate its educational and religious autonomy through various laws and practices.
In her presentation at the event, Kırmacı indicated that Greece’s assimilation policy towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace continues today as it did in the past, and that 60,000 Western Thrace Turks were stripped of their Greek citizenship under the racist provisions of Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law, which was in force between 1955 and 1998.
Noting that the Turkish community’s education and religious autonomy, guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, continue to be an issue, Kırmacı said that that while there were 307 Turkish primary schools in Western Thrace in 1923, this number has now fallen to 86, that the 1991 law deprived the Turkish community of its right to appoint its own muftis, and that the most recent law transformed the autonomous mufti offices into public agencies under the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.
Kırmacı emphasised that Greece has persistently failed to execute the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments regarding the associations of the Turkish community in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for the past 17 years, stating that the Turkish community’s freedom of association has been deliberately violated.
Explaining that the Turkish community in Western Thrace demands the restoration of their educational and religious autonomy from Greece, Kırmacı noted that they also demand the EP to take a leading role in guaranteeing the rights of national minorities in EU Member States, including Greece.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission at the event, Lalisse pointed out that hate speech and crimes against Muslims have increased across the EU in recent times and added that the European Commission will take new initiatives in this area.
Meanwhile, Emine Bayraktarova, a representative of the Turkish community in Bulgaria, said that the Turkish community in Bulgaria had lived in a good environment until the 1950s, but that the communist regime had subjected Turks to forced assimilation thereafter.
