ABTTF President: “Our country’s former Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos somehow does not mention the ECtHR judgments regarding the Western Thrace Turkish associations. As Venizelos knows very well, our country is obliged to fully comply with ECtHR case-law and cannot make a choice insofar as I decide to execute this ECtHR judgement and not execute that one.”
The European Consortium for Church and State Research’s annual meeting entitled “Islam and Human Rights in the European Union (EU)” held in Thessaloniki on 23-25 September 2021 also referred to the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
Former Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos stated at the meeting that traditional Islamic law has been applied for the Muslim minority in (Western) Thrace and noted that Greece is obliged to fully comply with ECtHR case-law, even if it is delayed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment against Greece in the case of Hatice Molla Salih in December 2018. Venizelos also indicated that he has hope that the Greek Court of Cassation (Arios Pagos) will not continue to oppose the adoption of the ECtHR case-law.
“Our country Greece’s Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Former Member of the Sub-Committee on the implementation of judgments of the ECtHR Evangelos Venizelos says that the judgement ruled by the ECtHR with respect to the Hatice Molla Salih case should be executed but at the same time, he does not mention at all the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases in which the Western Thrace Turkish associations are included and the ECtHR judgments that our country is failing to execute for the past 13 years along with the 29 June 2021 decision of the Court of Cassation to reject the appeal of the Xanthi Turkish Union. As Venizelos knows very well, our country is obliged to fully comply with ECtHR case-law and cannot make a choice insofar as I decided to execute this ECtHR judgement and not execute that one. As the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe made it clear in its last resolution of 16 September 2021, our country should immediately stop ignoring the ECtHR judgements and the ECtHR case-law with respect to the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases and remove the injustice that the Xanthi Turkish Union has been experiencing for the past 38 years”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
