In its parallel report, ABTTF expressed the problems experienced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the field of human and minority rights.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) prepared a parallel report as a response to the explanations related to the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the Greece 2018 Human Rights Report published by the United States Department of State and sent it to the US competent authorities. In its parallel report, ABTTF detailed the problems experienced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace and cited current developments not included in the US report.
In its parallel report, ABTTF underlined that Greece does not recognize the ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, noting that it does not allow associations which include the word “Turkish” in their names. ABTTF noted that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had ruled that Greece had violated Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights which stipulates freedom of association in three judgments it had delivered in 2007 and 2008 with respect to the closure of the Xanthi Turkish Union and the non-registration by Greek courts of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Rodopi Province and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association. Furthermore, ABTTF indicated that despite the years that have passed, Greece has still not implemented ECtHR judgments regarding the said cases. In detail to the ongoing national legal process related to the three associations mentioned, ABTTF indicated that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe closely supervises the execution of the relevant judgements of ECtHR under the name of “the Bekir-Ousta group of cases”. ABTTF called on Greece to take, without any further delay, all necessary measures for the implementation of the ECtHR’s judgments with regard to the Bekir-Ousta group of cases.
Regarding the issue of education, ABTTF stressed that the Turkish community in Western Thrace has educational autonomy within the framework of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne but that autonomy had been destroyed over the years by the Greek government’s interventions and various legal regulations. Noting that bilingual Turkish primary schools were closed for economic reasons despite being autonomous, ABTTF indicated that that the number of Turkish primary schools fell from 194 in 2008 to 123 in the 2019-2020 school year. Moreover, ABTTF also underscored that the Greek government had refused the demands of the Turkish community in Western Thrace with respect to opening Turkish and Greek bilingual kindergartens in the region, and that the children belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace are forced to attend public kindergartens where only the Greek language is the medium of instruction. ABTTF called on Greece to restore the educational autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and to allow Turkish-Greek bilingual kindergartens to be opened within schools belonging to the Turkish community.
On religious freedom, ABTTF underlined that the muftis elected by the Turkish community in Western Thrace are still not recognized by Greece, despite the fact that the Turkish community in Western Thrace has been granted the right to elect its own religious leaders within the framework of international treaties. Noting that many lawsuits had been filed against the Elected Mufti of Rodopi İbrahim Şerif and the Elected Mufti of Xanthi Ahmet Mete on grounds of ‘usurpation of the office of mufti’, ABTTF indicated that Şerif was condemned to a prison sentence in a court judgement delivered in 2019 and that Mete had faced the same fate in February 2020.
