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The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe called upon Greece to urgently execute the ECtHR judgments

17.09.2021

ABTTF President: ‘Due to the fact that our country has not executed the ECtHR judgments regarding the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases for the past 13 years and ignores the ECtHR case-law, we ask the Committee of Ministers to initiate the infringement procedure against our country in accordance with Article 46 of the ECHR in its next review’.

At its last meeting in Strasbourg, which was held on 14-16 September 2021, the Committee o Ministers of the Council of Europe re-examined the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases as regards the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace. In its resolution on 16 September 2021, the Committee of Ministers criticised the fact that the cases of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Rodopi Province and Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association have still not been examined by the national courts, 13 years after the final judgments given by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and following the rejection of the appeal for the restoration of the official status of the Xanthi Turkish Union by the Greek Court of Cassation (Arios Pagos).

The Committee of Ministers noted with particular concern that judgment 840/2021 of 29 June 2021 delivered by the Court of Cassation, which rejected the appeal of the Xanthi Turkish Union and stated that the dissolution of the association was legal, was based on the same grounds that the ECtHR explicitly rejected in its final judgment of 27 September 2008 and further expressed their regret that in the judgment delivered by the Court of Cassation, they did not take into consideration the ‘essential element’ noted by the ECtHR that the president or the members of the association have never advocated violence, uprising or any other form of rejection of democratic principles and that no evidence has been presented which showed the opposite. 

In addition, the Committee of Ministers stated that the additional grounds used by the Court of Cassation as regards the statutes of Xanthi Turkish Union with respect to the objectives of the association were not expressly impugned by the ECtHR, and underlined that the judgment of the Court of Cassation to approve the dissolution of the association on the basis of these reasons was not in accordance with the results and spirit of the ECtHR judgment that Greece is in the legal obligation to execute. 

The Committee of Ministers also stressed that the amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure in 2017, which allows the reopening of cases, did not lead to the swift, full and effective execution of the ECtHR judgment on the Xanthi Turkish Union.

Moreover, the Committee of Ministers noted with concern that in light of the recent judgment rendered by the Court of Cassation, the Greek authorities did not leave any other choice but for the Xanthi Turkish Union to lodge a new application before the ECtHR as it considers itself as victims of a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and called upon the Greek authorities to reinforce their dialogue with the Secretariat in order to explore alternative avenues with may well possibly be envisaged by which the violation found in the case may be rectified in full and effective conformity with Article 11 of the ECHR as regards freedom of assembly and association and the related ECtHR judgment. The Committee of Ministers also urged the Greek authorities to take measures in order to fully ensure that the appeals of the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Rodopi Province and Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association whose hearings are scheduled to take place on 1 October 2021 are decided by the Court of Cassation and in full and effective compliance with Article 11 of the ECHR and ECtHR case-law. 

Noting with deep concern that with the judgment 840/2021 rendered by the Court of Cassation which rejected the appeal of the Xanthi Turkish Union and ignored the ECtHR judgment and that to this date the Court of Cassation has not aligned its case-law with that of the ECtHR fully and effectively, the Committee of Ministers decided to resume considerations as regards the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases at the latest at its June 2022 meeting. 

‘The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe made it very clear that our country is ignoring ECtHR judgments and ECtHR case-law regarding the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases and demanded an immediate end to the violation of the freedom of association of our community. The Committee of Ministers reaffirmed that the reasons put forward by the Court of Cassation in the last rejection judgment were not already clearly accepted in the final judgment of the ECtHR in 2008 and called on our country to end the injustice experienced by the Xanthi Turkish Union for the past 38 years. On the other hand, the judgment rendered by the Court of Cassation dated 29 June 2021 reflects our country’s policy of denial of the Turkish identity of our community and is a political decision, not a legal one. Due to the fact that our country has not executed the ECtHR judgments regarding the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases for the past 13 years and ignores the ECtHR case-law, we ask the Committee of Ministers to initiate the infringement procedure against our country in accordance with Article 46 of the ECHR in its next review’ said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF). 

Please click here for the full text of the resolution: 
https://search.coe.int/cm/pages/result_details.aspx?objectid=0900001680a3c11d

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