ABTTF President: “Contrary to what Kotsiras, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of our country, claims, our educational and religious autonomy guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne has de facto disappeared nowadays as a result of various laws and unilateral practices over the years. While all these facts are obvious, we call on the rulers of our country to abandon unfounded discourses that mislead the international public opinion, and we reiterate our demand that our country establish direct dialogue with our community based on goodwill to find long lasting solution to our issues’’.
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece Giorgos Kotsiras spoke at the 58th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on 26 February 2025.
Responding to the statement made the day before by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay, Kotsiras claimed that Greece attaches special importance to the continuous guarantee of the rights of the Muslim minority in the region of (Western) Thrace, which is a religious minority according to the Treaty of Lausanne.
Kotsiras argued that members of the Muslim minority are under special protection under the Treaty of Lausanne and enjoy all rights as Greek and EU citizens.
In his online speech at the opening of the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Turkish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay indicated that the most fundamental rights and freedoms of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace and Greek citizens of Turkish origin living in the Dodecanese Islands are being seriously violated and called on the UN Human Rights Council to take action to ensure that the ethnic identity and rights of Turks there are properly respected by Greece.
“The fact that our motherland has taken care of us this time at the UN by expressing the issues of our community and the rights auctions it has been subjected to has again caused discomfort in our country. Contrary to what Kotsiras, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of our country, claims, our educational and religious autonomy guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne has de facto disappeared nowadays as a result of various laws and unilateral practices over the years. Our primary schools with autonomous status are closed one by one every year under the pretext of lack of students, and the muftis elected by our community are not recognised. Our country, which has persistently failed to implement the three judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against our associations for 17 years, continues to systematically violate our community’s freedom of association and the rule of law. While all these facts are obvious, we call on the rulers of our country to abandon unfounded discourses that mislead the international public opinion, and we reiterate our demand for our country to establish direct dialogue with our community based on goodwill to find long lasting solution to our issues”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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