Cases of Elected Muftis at European Court of Human Rights were on the agenda at 7th Annual North – South Europe Economics Forum

ABTTF as being the unique NGO that was invited to 7th Annual North – South Europe Economics Forum, conveyed the problems of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority members problems to 150 delegates of 38 countries.

7th Annual North – South Europe Economics Forum, which was organized by Instutite for European Affairs and Norwegian Foreign Relations Ministry, was held between 28 – 29 September in Oslo, the capital city of Norway.

Due to the recent events, the theme on the agenda was „Coexistence of Religions – Values and Toleran-ce“ ABTTF was invited to the Forum because of the cases of elected Muftis of Komotini and Xanthi, Ibrahim Şerif, Mehmet Emin Aga respectively at European Court of Human Rights.

Jonas Gahr Störe, minister of Norwegian Foreign Affairs, Dr. Şarık Tara, honorary member of Council of Foreign Economics Relation and founder of North – South Europe Economics Forum, Prof.Dr. Jürgen Gramke, former Germany Prime Minister and chairan of INEA, Jan Figel, European Union Commissioner of Education and Culture, Mesut Yılmaz, former Prime Minister of Turkish Republic. In addition, Ministers, former ministers, representatives of various instutitions, experts and media members participted the Forum whose patron was Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberug. The top themes to be discussed during the Forum were cooperation between South and North Europe, strategic coope-ration for a better integration in Europe and the communication with non – EU countries. Due to the dramatic events experienced recently in Europe, the first day of the organization was devoted to „Tolerance between religions“.

Prof.Dr. Jürgen Gramke, former Germany Prime Minister and chairan of INEA, made the opening speech of the 7th Annual South North European Forum and criticised West European countries as they did not spend the necessary money for tolerance between the religions while they spent great amount of sources for fighting aganist terrorism.

Dr. Şarık Tara, honorary member of Council of Foreign Economics Relation and founder of North – South Europe Economics Forum, emphasized that in history more than enough wars were experienced because of religion. He continued as “During the post war era of rising nationalism and the cold war period, European countries sought scape goat that was responsible for all worrisome happenings and Islam was was selected as the scape goat.

Jonas Gahr Störe, minister of Norwegian Foreign Affairs, explained that in Norway, there were no problems related with neither Islam – fobia nor racism. He emphasized that he evaluated „Islamic Terror“ so wrong and in his opinion, Islam was being abused by different groups. He continued as“ For peace and solidarity, dialog between religions is urgent and dialog establishes bridges between different communi-ties.“

Tolerance between religions and economic problems of European Union were the top themes of the Fo-rum during two days. Halit Habipoğlu, chairman of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe and Nesrin Hatzimehmet, translator, conveyed the problems of Western Thrace Turkish Minority members to the 150 delegates of 38 countries. The status of the elected Muftis has not been officially recognized yet as conveyed by Halit Habipoğlu. In addition, the cases of İbrahim Şerif and Mehmet Emin Aga, the elected muftis of Komotini and Xanthi respectively were also explained. As mentioned before, cases of the Muftis at European Court of Human Rights were succesfully won. Those cases, that were won, show that European Court of Human Rights approve the human rights violations committed by Greece in Western Thrace aganist Turkish Minority members.

Public record of the cases of İbrahim Şerif and Mehmet Emin Aga, the elected muftis of Komotini and Xanthi respectively were distributed to the delegates by Halit habipoğlu and they attracted serious attention from the delegates. Also monthly newsletters of ABTTF published in Greek, Turkish, English and Turkish were given consideration.

Halit Habaipoğlu, chairman of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, evaluated their actions during two days Forum as „ABTTF was the unique NGO invited to the 7th Annual ´North South Eu-ropean Forum and we found the opportunity to convey the problems of out minority to the international public attention. We also met scholars who desire to make cooperation with our Federation on future projects. Our international actions carry great importance for our minority’s future“