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The Court of Cassation rejected once again the request for the execution of the ECtHR judgments as regards the Western Thrace Turkish associations! 

02.09.2022

ABTTF President: “After rejecting the request of the Xanthi Turkish Union to be restored to its official legal entity in June 2021, the Court of Cassation has now made a political decision again by rejecting the registration request of our other two associations. As ABTTF, we will continue to stand by our two associations in their legal struggle, and we will convey to international institutions and organisations that the official policy of our country, which rejects our ethnic Turkish identity, has been completely politicized and the principle of the rule of law has been disregarded, extending to the decisions of the Court of Cassation.’’

The Court of Cassation of our country Greece (Arios Pagos) has once again rejected the request of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to execute the judgments with respect to the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association and to register the aforementioned associations officially.

Ten months after the hearing on 1 October 2021, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal of the Western Thrace Turkish associations despite the ECtHR judgments and the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association, which were not registered by the national courts applied to the ECtHR and the ECtHR ruled that our country violated the freedom of association unanimously in the judgments of 2007 and 2008.

Two associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace applied to the Thrace Court of Appeal for the granting of their legal status following the amendments made to the Code of Civil Procedure, which was adopted in the parliament in 2017 and allowed the ECtHR judgments to be executed by the national courts of our country, and after the court’s rejection decision, they moved the cases to the Court of Cassation.

“After rejecting the request of the Xanthi Turkish Union to be restored to its official legal entity in June 2021, the Court of Cassation has now made a political decision again by rejecting the registration request of our other two associations. With this latest decision of the Court of Cassation, our country has once again ignored the principle of the rule of law, disregarding the ECtHR judgments regarding our associations and the European Convention on Human Rights, to which it is a party. This is a shameful situation for our country, which claims to be the ‘cradle of democracy’, and it does not suit our country. AABTTF, we will continue to stand by our two associations in their legal struggle, and we will convey to international institutions and organisations that the official policy of our country, which rejects our ethnic Turkish identity, has been completely politicized and the principle of the rule of law has been disregarded’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).  

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