Delegation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace visited South Tyrol

The delegation conducted several meetings and visits on tourism, rural development and agriculture for the economic development of Western Thrace region in Greece.

A delegation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, which was composed of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) as the initiator, mayors belonging to the minority and officials of the Agriculture-Livestock Research Institute (ALRI), visited from 26 to 29 May 2016 South Tyrol, an autonomous province in northern Italy where the German and Ladin minorities live. The delegation was led by Halit Habip Oğlu, ABTTF President and Vice-President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) and comprised ABTTF Vice-President Mesut Küçük Hasan, the Mayor of Yassıköy (Iasmos) İsmet Kadı, the Mayor of Myki Cemil Kabza, the City Councillor of Yassıköy (Arriana) Rıdvan Hacı Mehmet, ALRI Executive Board Member Hüseyin Sadık, ALRI Business Advisor Onur Mustafa Ahmet and Yakup Uzun from ABTTF Brussels Office.

The delegation met with the high-level officials of the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol and paid attention to the experiences of the German and Ladin minorities by visiting the places where they live

On 26 May 2016, Arnold Schuler, Minister for Agriculture and Forestry in the Provincial Government of South Tyrol hosted in honour of the delegation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace a dinner attended also by the MEP Herbert Dorfmann who belongs to the German minority. The delegation attended on Friday, 27 May, a guided tour through the farmer’s market in the city of Sterzing and was provided by the Chairman of the Sterzing Farmer’s Market Bernhard Auckenthaler with detailed information on the farmer’s market (Bauernmarkt) concept from agriculture as well as tourism perspectives. Afterwards, the delegation visited the Tourism Association of Sterzing, where it was introduced by the association’s director Josef Turin on the tourism model of South Tyrol. On the same day, the delegation was received separately by Arno Kompatscher, Governor of the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol and Martha Stocker, Minister for Health, Sport, Social Afairs and Labour in the Provincial Government of South Tyrol and former Vice-President of FUEN.

A team of the regional television channel Rai Südtirol accompanied the delegation during its visit in the city of Sterzing and made an interview both with ABTTF President and FUEN Vice-President Halit Habip Oğlu and the Mayor of Mustafçova (Myki) Cemil Kabza.

On Saturday, 28 May, the delegation made a tour through that part of South Tyrol where the Ladin minority lives, visited the Ladin Museum and was informed by the representatives of the Ladin minority on the relationship between and coexistence of mountain farming and mountain tourism. Subsequently, the member of the Italian Parliament and FUEN Vice-President Daniel Alfreider, who belongs to the Ladin minority, hosted in honour of the delegation a lunch in the mountainous area.