The European Court of Human Rights(ECHR), has notified in writing its Chamber judgments in the cases of Tourkiki Enosi Xanthis (Xanthi Turkish Union) and Others v. Greece and Emin and Others v. Greece and the Court convicted Greece for the cases that was brought before the ECHR in the date of July 2005 by the Xanthi Turkish Union which was abolished because it had denomination “Turk” in its name and the Cultural Association Turkish Women of the Region of Rodopi which had never been registered because the Greek courts had founded that the association constituted a danger to public policy. On 27 March 2008 the Western Thrace Turkish Minority has thus won a second victory before the ECHR after the Court, on October 2007, held in the case of Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association that there had been a violation of Article 11 of the Euro-pean Convention of Human Rights which protects the freedom of assembly and association. Thence, Western Thrace Turks, whose associations are dissolved only because they have de-nomination the word “Turk” in its name, have reaped a great success on the way that Greece’s approval of the existence of Turkish identity in Western Thrace.
The ECHR, in the cases of “Xanthi Turkish Union and others v. Greece”(no. 26698/05) and Emin and Others v. Greece (application no. 34144/05) held unanimously that Greece violated the “right to freedom of assembly and association”. In the case of the Xanthi Turkish Union and others v. Greece that brought before the Court by Galip Galip and other seven applicants after that the Xanthi Turkish Union and Academic Graduates Circle of the Minority in Western Thrace were dissolved because the term “Turkish” are used on any document, stamp or sign, the Court noted that the proceedings in question had lasted more than 21 years, and it considered that Greece failed to satisfy the “reasonable time” requirement therefore there had been a viola-tion of Article 6(1) (right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time) of the Convention. Besides, the Court awarded the association Xanthi Turkish Union 8,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage. In the second case of Emin and Others v. Greece which was brought before the ECHR by Hülya Emin and other six applicants after the Greek courts dismissed a request for registration of the association of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Region of Rodopi on the ground that its title might mislead the public regarding the origin of its members and that the Greek Court of Appeal upheld a decision that by virtue of the Treaty of Lausanne only a Muslim minority and not a Turkish minority had been recognized in the region of Western Thrace, the Court held that the finding of a violation constituted in itself just satisfaction for the non-pecuniary damage suffered by the applicants.
The text of the judgement with regard to the case of Tourkiki Enosi Xanthis and Others v. Greece can be retrieved here.
The text of the judgement with regard to the case of Emin and Others v. Greece can be retrieved here.
The ECHR terminated the issue of identity in Western Thrace
The Court stated in its judgment “even supposing the real aim of the association had been to promote the idea that there was an ethnic minority in Greece, this could not be said to constitute a threat to democratic society”. And the Court terminated the issue of identity in Western Thrace be reiterating that the “existence of minorities and different cultures in a country was a historical fact that a democratic society had to tolerate and even protect and support according to the prin-ciples of international law”. Moreover, the Court considered that “freedom of association involved the right of everyone to express, in a lawful context, their beliefs about their ethnic identity” and added that “however shocking and unacceptable certain views or words used might appear to the authorities, their dissemination should not automatically be regarded as a threat to public policy or to the territorial integrity of a country”. The President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, Halit Habipoglu, stated the Court decision had a significant importance for the Western Thrace Turkish Minority that had never resorted to violence and re-mained loyal to their country Greece all the time in history and that there had no more room for Greece to deny the Turkish identity of the Minority. Habipoglu said “After the Court decision to convict Greece once more for the abolished or not even registered associations founded by per-sons belonging to the Western Thrace Turkish Minority; Greece had to revise and change its attitude and policies towards all the ethnic minorities in the country”. And the President added, “The just struggle the Minority had gone along for long years had been strengthened after the Court decision. The Western Thrace Turkish Minority would ever proceed on its way more strongly”.
