ABTTF President: ‘It is very disappointing that this year’s report has removed the heading on national/racial/ethnic minority groups and includes the issues of the Western Thrace Turks in only a few sentences as regards the fields of education, freedom of association and the religious authority of the Muftis’.
The United States Department of State has published its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. In the report which examines the situation of human rights around the world on a country-by-country basis, the section on Greece had, in the past, discussed issues concerning the Turkish community in Western Thrace under the heading of the members of national/racial/ethnic minority groups. However, this year’s report has erased this heading and the report addressed the issues related to the Turkish community in Western Thrace in an even more limited way than in previous years.
The Turkish community in Western Thrace in the report
The structure of the 36-page section on Greece has been changed compared to previous years. Due to the deletion of the heading of members of national/racial/ethnic minority groups, the report does not address the problems in the areas of self-identification, demographics and population, education and religion of the Turkish community in Western Thrace with a reference to the ‘Muslim minority in Thrace’ in the past years.
Under the heading related to education and by using the definition of ‘Muslim minority in Thrace’, it is noted in the report that some Minority members complain about poor quality of minority schools, including about the absence of the bilingual middle and high schools. However, as last year’s report stated, there is no mention of the closure of primary schools belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace on the grounds of the decreasing number of students and the resulting rapid decline in the number of primary schools. In addition, the lack of bilingual Turkish kindergartens in the region is not included in the report this year.
Under the heading of discrimination, this year’s report includes a note in the field of religion that only individuals from the Turkish community in Western Thrace can apply to sharia law (traditional Islamic law) on family and inheritance issues with their consent before a notary public. The report does not include issues pertaining to the offices of the mufti and other religious issues.
As regards the freedom of association, while last year’s report recognised the freedom of association, the report reiterated that the government continued to place legal restrictions on associations of persons who self-identify as ethnic Macedonian or associations that include the term “Turkish” as indicative of a collective ethnic identity.
It is stated that on 30 June 2021, the Court of Cassation upheld previous court decisions on grounds of national security and public order in rejecting the decision on the registration of the Xanthi Turkish Union. The report noted that the Xanthi Turkish Union responded that the decision of the Court of Cassation violated the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, and that the association should be officially registered.
However, there is no mention of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerning the three associations known as the Bekir-Ousta and Others Group of Cases, which were dissolved or non-registered because of the of the word ‘Turkish’ in their names, and of the inability of Greece to execute these judgments since 2008.
Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made the following statement: ‘The U.S. State Department’s 2021 report has been prepared in an entirely different structure from the previous years. For the last two years, we have been criticizing that the issues of the Western Thrace Turks have been even less present within the framework of the Greece report. It is very disappointing to see that the heading on national/racial/ethnic minority groups has been removed in this year’s report. Indeed, the issues of the Western Thrace Turks are included in only a few sentences in the field of education, freedom of association and the religious authority of the muftis. As ABTTF, we will convey our criticism of the content of the Greece report to the US authorities. As we do every year, this year too we will prepare a report detailing the issues of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the field of human and minority rights and forward our report to the relevant US authorities’.
Please click here for the full text of the US 2021 Greece Country Report on Human Rights Practices:https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/greece/
