ABTTF President: “We are a civil society organisation that has been established to be the voice of the Turkish community in Western Thrace at the international arena and that is the only thing we have been doing for the past 33 years. We are no one’s extension and we don’t have a different agenda as we have been accused. On the contrary, despite the authorities that have ignored us until now, we are aware that Athens is the main place to solve our problems and we have been paying special efforts to co-operate with governmental authorities, politics and civil society in Athens for the last two years based on our belief that we can solve our problems in dialogue with the competent authorities in our country”.
New Democracy Party (ND) Rodopi MP Evripidis Stylianidis directly targeted the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) during an interview he gave on 27 February 2021 to a programme on the internet website Militaire.gr with journalist Paris Karvounopoulos. Stylianidis accused ABTTF which is representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the international arena to be financed by Turkish centres and that it is pursuing in activities as an association in Germany on purpose, and he further alleged that ABTTF is taking on Stylianidis in a purposeful manner.
In the interview where the relations between Turkey and Greece were assessed, Stylianidis, who has targeted ABTTF which represents the rights and interests of the Turkish community in Western Thrace at the international level, in a nutshell, said the following: ‘The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe whose centre is located in Germany is in the news with its latest appeals. First of all, I would like to say that these associations are deliberately in Germany. In my opinion, the definition that ‘they are purposefully there’ is due to the rights that they have there. If such an association was located in Greece, it would have come directly in opposition to the Constitution of the Greek state and to Greek laws as a result of its way of addressing and activities. (…) It is proven that it is being financed by Turkish organisations. Of course, they have dealt with me many times personally, always taking a step forward, sometimes targeting one of us...’
Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made the following statement: ‘First of all, I would like to express that ABTTF is an umbrella organisation which was established in 1988 by Western Thrace Turks who had immigrated from Western Thrace to Germany. ABTTF has been founded under a roof by seven Western Thrace Turkish associations in Germany in February 1988 with the objective of raising awareness at the international level regarding the allegations that ‘there are no Turks in Greece’ and following the closure of our associations and later the process we lived till the 29 January 1988 events. Moreover, all of this also came following the fact that our associations with the word ‘Turkish’ in them were legally operating from 1927 till 1983 and at that time the state policy was that our Minority was recognised and acknowledged as being Turkish by the state and government officials, but this later totally changed when the relations between Greece and our motherland Turkey deteriorated as a result of the Cyprus issue. Therefore, it cannot be said in any way that ABTTF is purposefully located in Germany as alleged by Stylianidis. We are a civil society organisation that has been established to be the voice of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the international arena and that is the only thing we have been doing for the past 33 years. As an international non-governmental organisation, we defend the rights and interests of the Turkish community in Western Thrace at the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament in Brussels. We are no one’s extension and we don’t have a different agenda as we have been accused. On the contrary, despite the authorities that have ignored us until now, we are aware that Athens is the main place to solve our problems and we have been paying special efforts to cooperate with government authorities, politics and civil society in Athens for the last two years based on our belief that we can solve our problems in dialogue with the competent authorities in our country'.
Regarding the allegation that ABTTF is dealing personally with Stylianidis, Habip Oğlu added the following: ‘It is out of the question for us to deal with Stylianidis by targeting him personally, we are merely looking out for the rights and interests of our community. We naturally react to statements targeting our community. We are always ready to make the necessary contribution for our country to be truly a country that fully respects human rights, including democratic and minority rights. However, making undue accusations about our Federation, which has no purpose other than to protect the interests of our community in face of a state policy that denies our existence, does not benefit Stylianidis or anyone else. Indeed, as Rodopi MP Stylianidis knows very well, almost 55 percent of the population in Rodopi is Turkish. Just as the Turks of Western Thrace existed as Turks in that region until 1983, they are today as well. He knows this very well. Because we are also among those who voted to the party which he is a member of during the elections! Therefore, instead of distorting the facts and trying to move them elsewhere, it is important to accept the facts first’.
