ABTTF President: “We expect our country, which describes the imprisonment of the elected mayor of the Greek minority as a regression in human rights, to look in the mirror and show the same sensitivity for the Turkish community in Western Thrace as they are Greek citizens whose rights and freedoms have been systematically usurped for decades. Indeed, the Copenhagen Criteria regarding democracy, rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities are valid not only for the EU candidate countries, but also for the current 27 Member States of the EU and therefore for our country.”
Our country Greece prevented the start of membership negotiations between Albania and the European Union (EU), on grounds of the imprisonment of an elected mayor belonging to the Greek national minority in Albania.
Fredi Beleri, a member of the Greek minority living in Albania, who was elected Mayor of Himarë in the local elections held on 14 May 2023, was arrested on charges of active corruption in the elections. Greece linked Albania’s membership negotiations with the EU to the imprisonment of elected mayor Beleri and described this situation as a regression in human rights in the country and requested that Beleri’s prison sentence be terminated.
“It is quite normal for our country to protect the human rights of the Greek minority living in Albania. We expect our country, which describes the imprisonment of the elected mayor of the Greek minority as a regression in human rights, to look in the mirror and show the same sensitivity for the Turkish community in Western Thrace as they are Greek citizens whose rights and freedoms have been systematically usurped for decades. Our country, which has rendered our educational and religious autonomy guaranteed by the treaties inapplicable in practice and has not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding our associations for more than fifteen years, ignores the values of democracy and law on which the European Union, of which it has been a member since 1981 is based. Indeed, the Copenhagen Criteria regarding democracy, rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities are valid not only for the EU candidate countries, but also for the current 27 Member States of the EU and therefore for our country’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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