In the 20th period we will work at new targets with same determination and impetus!

Dear Western Thrace Turks,

At our ABTTF Ordinary General Assembly held on 15 April 2017, we presented the activities we executed in the last two years and we gave an accounting to our delegates who participated at the general assembly. At the elections held at the general assembly, we elected ABTTF President and our vice presidents. Myself and my five colleagues were elected with the votes of our delegates and reassured trust and our five colleagues were elected for the ABTTF administration for the first time.

ABTTF 20th Ordinary General Assembly was different than the ones in the past. This time I was directly elected as the president with the votes of our delegates. And another change was that tenure of office of the ABTTF President and vice presidents elected to the Presidency Board increased to four years.

And in the first Presidency Board meeting we determined the field of duty of our vice presidents. In addition to pre-dominant lobbying activities of our federation as an international civil society organization in this period in order to meet the needs of our community we established duty fields in a way where the internal works would be pre-dominant. All our vice presidents shall sustain the dialogue with our member associations. Besides we further established new duty fields like execution of educational activities including protection and development of the mother tongue of the Western Thrace Turks community living outside Greece, organization of social and cultural activities with the aim to preserve and transfer Turkish culture and traditions of the Western Thrace Turks community to next generations, execute youth activities to understand the needs of our young generation and to train them with the conscious of the Western Thrace Turk and setting on the way with unifying characteristic of sports carrying out sportive activities. With distribution of duties where we plan to execute active and comprehensive works for our grassroots we will be in cooperation with our associations and we will conduct activities together and pave the way for them to be involved in the works where they are located. When we do these activities, our Federation will continue its works at international field with the same determination and impetus. I wish the 20th period will be benevolent for our community.

My dear fellows,

I visited Prizren as the FUEN Vice President, pearl of the Balkans, of which I continuously heard its name and curious to see upon the invitation of Kosovo Youth Union Association. Prizren, a small city located on a slope of the mountain and with its architectural structure inherited from the Ottoman Empire reminded me of somewhat our Xhanti.

In Prizren I attended 23rd April Kosovo Turks National Festival inauguration concert where instrument players and singers from Doğru Yol Culture and Art Association, one of the oldest associations of Kosovo Turks, performed on stage. I visited Mahir Yağcılar, Kosovo Turk, Minister of Public Administration in his office and I had meetings with Kosovo Turkish MPs Fikrim Damka and Müferra Şinik. Here I would like to extend my thanks to Cengiz Kovaç, President of Kosovo Youth Union Association who hosted us and to all Kosovo Turks for their hospitality.

In Prizren, I visited the Prizren Fortress inherited from Ottoman Empire, historical Stone Bridge and Sinan Pasha Mosque. While I was visiting Sinan Pasha Mosque restorated with the support of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), I recalled Beyazıt Mosque in Dimetoka. While the Ottoman Heritage in Kosovo is protected and restorated diligently it is not possible to say the same thing in Greece.

During my visit to Kosovo I learned that the Turkish population in Kosovo is 25 thousand. They are significantly less in number compared to our population, but thanks to the contingency provided for the non-majority communities in the country they have two MPs who they elect themselves and even they have ministers in the Kosovo government. They don’t have their own schools but in the places where they reside intensely they have the opportunity of Turkish curriculum and Turkish course books and Turkish education at state schools. And by virtue of the four Turkish departments in higher education, they may train their own teachers. They administer their foundations themselves and they manage the income they make themselves, and they designate their own muftis themselves. Furthermore, in their identity cards there is Turkish along with Albanian. This is a Balkan country that we talk about. Besides it is not an EU country, we are talking about a country which was established just 9 years ago. With its geography and people, it is just like Western Thrace. However, the people in the country despite their war experience in near past respecting each other’s rights are living in tolerance.

During my visit to Kosovo another issue which drew my attention was the use of the term communities instead of minorities. With the term community, it was underlined that all communities living in Kosovo are constituent elements of the country hence it is desired that none of the groups are superior to the other or excluded. When Declaration of Independence was signed, representatives of different ethnic groups signed the manifesto and accordingly they established Kosovo all together. At this point we must say that Kosovo Turks from the very beginning acted with a far-sighted vision in the way leading to independence.

Kosovo Turks and Western Thrace Turks are two Turkish communities in the Balkans. Under present conditions Western Thrace Turks has been classified as the “other” in their country Greece. Even though they have autonomous structure in the fields of education and religion, with various practices this autonomy does not function anymore. While Kosovo Turks have a say in the government, we cannot say the same thing for the Western Thrace Turks and unfortunately there is no dialogue between our country’s authorities and the community representatives. Furthermore, we are Muslims or Turkish element in Muslim minority for our country, not the Turks! Despite a state policy dependent on denial and hypocritical approach, we as the Western Thrace Turks like Kosovo Turks continue to protect our language, religion and identity and we will continue to do so under any condition. We shall sustain our struggle without intimidation!

Sincerely yours,


Halit Habip Oğlu
ABTTF President