ABTTF President: “Despite the change of governments, our country has not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for more than 16 years. Consciously politicising these judgments and constantly playing for time despite all the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, our country continues to violate the freedom of association of our community’’.
In the article titled ‘‘Greece ― the country that lets people escape justice’’ published on Politico news portal, the state of the rule of law in Greece was analysed.
The article, which referred to the train crash in Tempe, the Pylos shipwreck and illegal phone tapping, also included the words of Greek Ombudsman Andreas Pottakis. Indicating that there is a sense of a systematic and coordinated effort to downplay certain incidents in the country, Pottakis noted that this leads to ‘‘suspicions of an attempted cover-up’’ and negligence that ‘‘could involve political leadership’’.
‘‘The remarks of the Greek Ombudsman on the possible active role of the government in the systematic violation of the rule of law in our country Greece are quite remarkable. In a joint statement issued recently by fourteen human rights and media freedom organisations, a reference was made to the government’s responsibility for the deterioration of the rule of law in our country. Both the resolution of the European Parliament in February 2024 and the 2024 report of the European Commission, to which ABTTF also contributed in writing, underscored that the rule of law in our country was under serious threat. As the Turkish community in Western Thrace, we have been experiencing this situation for years. Despite the change of governments, our country has not executed the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for more than 16 years. Our country, which deliberately politicises the aforementioned judgments and constantly plays for time despite all the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, continues to violate the freedom of association of our community’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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