ABTTF was the hot debate on the agenda at Human Dimension Meeting of OSCE

Witten-21.09.2005

Western Thrace Turkish Minority was the hot debate on the agenda at Human Dimension Meeting of Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

Greece delegation that answered Özkan Reşit, the representative of ABTTF, at „Human Dimension“ meeting of Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continued their policy of denying the Turkish identity of the minority by identifying the minority only as „Muslims“, and they claimed that Greece had a democracy which met all international standards of democracy by rejecting all the political restrictions put on Turkish minority.

Özkan Reşit had the opportunity to express the political problems of Western Thrace Turks, the difficulties faced by 46.638 denaturalized Western Thrace Turks and the serious restrictions on freedom of associations to the international public opinion at OSCE Human Dimension meeting in Warsaw during 19 – 30 September 2005.

Representative of ABTTF during his first speech at the first session brought up the political restric-tions that the Turkish minority lived. He discussed the aim of the election barrage of 3% in 1993. He said the election barrage was formed due to the concern after 1989 and 1990 elections. The Greece worried about the possibility that the Turkish minority could elect their independent representatives and decided to form an election barrage to block this possibility. He continued as “This election barrage does not aim the political stability but instead the minorities. In European counties there are various election barrages according to their political conditions. The most confusing point in Greece is that the barrage covers the independent candidates as well. This political implementation special to Greece so clearly aims to hinder the political participation of the minorities.

The independent candidate principle which does not hinder political stability, instead it enables other voices to be heard in the pluralist democracy. Even if all the members of the Turkish minority that make up 1 – 1,5 % of the whole population, ballot for a candidate, it is impossible for the candidate to win except in Athens”. On the other hand, with the “Kapodistrias Plan” which aims to hinder the local representation of the minority, the areas where Turkish minority are in majority were merged with the areas where the Greek population is in majority. By this plan, the minority can elect their local representatives only in 4 municipalties and 7 subdistricts. This was one of the topics that Reşit emphasized during his speech.

The Greece delegation that answered to Reşit, continued to identify the minority as “Muslims” and they defended the election barrage by giving the election barrages in Germany and Turkey as examples.

The delegation preffered not to give answer when the ABTTF representative explained that the election barrage was not valid for the independent representatives neither in Germany nor in Turkey. They also claimed that the "Kapodistrias Plan“ covered all Greece not only the areas where the Turk-ish minority was in majority.

The second session of the meeting was not held due to lack of time stemming from the keen interest to the meeting. The representative delivered the second presentation via electronic mail and as printed example. Ther important topic was the 46.638 Western Thrace Turks who were denaturalized since depending on 2 reasons as; “not being from Heroic Race” and “leaving the country without any intention to come back”. In his presentation Reşit demanded the restoration of their rights without reserve.

At the second day of the meeting, the topic was the „Basic Rights“. Özkan Reşit uttered the problems of the minority associations that were closed since they had the word “Turk” in their association names.

He reminded as well that Greece signed the “Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities”, which is the Europea’s basic convention on the protection of national minorities, ten years ago but the parliement has not ratified the convention yet in spite of the passed ten years time.

Reşit demanded Greece to ratify the mentioned convention as soon as possible and to recognize the identity of the Turkish minority. He contunied as “ Today Greece, our country, should ratify this convention and prove that it does not sign the international conventions and agreements only to show up. It must satisfy its obligations. It is a great shame to close an association only because of its name and to reject the identity of 150.000 people in 21st century’s Europe. We wait for OSCE to use the necessary mechanisms to eliminate this unfair implementations and we demand Greece to recognize Turkish, Albanian and Macedonian identities and ratify the “Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities”.

Halit Habipoğlu, chairman of ABTTF evaluated the OSCE initiative of ABTTF as „Although our minority live in an EU country, they face a lot of problems. The solution for all our problems will come from Europe. Having this in mind, I hope to get the benefits of such initiatives soon”. He said that the presentations and speeches got so much attention from international human rights associations that they demanded the texts from the ABTTF representatives.

„Greece should face the realities and defeat the paranoia. To approve the identity of the Western Thrace Turkish minority who never disobeyed their country, to put an end to the pressure that we live through in religion, education, political, citizenship, economical fields are the responsibilities of our country that is proud of being a EU member at the 21st century. “ said Habipoğlu.