Examples of hate speech targeting the Turkish community in Western Thrace were conveyed in the meetings held within the scope of the working visit.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) paid a working visit to the capital of Germany, Berlin, on 1 March 2023. ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu met with German Bundestag deputies Carsten Träger (SPD) and Knut Abraham (CDU) during his working visit accompanied by ABTTF Head Office Manager K. Engin Soyyılmaz.
ABTTF President Habip Oğlu, who expressed the current issues of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the discrimination and rights violations it has been subjected to in the meetings with the deputies, indicated that the people and institutions representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace have been overtly targeted in the written and visual media lately. Underlining that the Turkish community in Western Thrace is portrayed as a ‘‘threat’’ and ‘‘danger’’ in politics and media in his own country, Habip Oğlu noted that this hostile attitude hinders the demand of the Turkish community for dialogue with the rulers of his country.
Stating that the educational and religious autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, which is guaranteed by the bilateral and international agreements, has been liquidated with various laws and practices over the years, Habip Oğlu noted that the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with respect to the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association have persistently not been executed by Greece for the past 15 years despite all the warnings and decisions of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Furthermore, Habip Oğlu noted that the latest example of hostility and prejudice against the Turkish community in Western Thrace is the filing of a lawsuit requesting the revocation of the registration of the Western Thrace Fenerbahçe Association, which was officially established in October 2022 with the signature of the Rodopi Provincial Prosecutor.
