ABTTF President: “The non-execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the associations of our community for the past 17 years is perhaps the most obvious example of the systematic violation of the rule of law and the politicisation of the law in our country. Our country, which is constantly playing for time in order not to execute the aforementioned judgments and ignoring the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, of which it is a member, continues to disregard international law’’.
In a lecture titled ‘‘Is the Constitution to blame? What can the next constitutional amendment add?’’, former Deputy Minister and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Evangelos Venizelos referred to the constitutional amendments in the country in the last 50 years and drew attention to the existence of various legal systems in Europe and the supremacy of European Union (EU) law on important issued in a speech he realised at the Goulandris Foundation on 27 March 2025.
Emphasising that the most important issue is national and social restructuring, Venizelos noted that Greece’s electoral democracy is successful, and that the parliamentary system is working smoothly, but he further indicated that there are serious issues in areas such as law, justice and economic functioning, and that public confidence in justice has been seriously damaged.
“This time Venizelos, the former deputy prime minister of our country, who is himself a professor of constitutional law, has once again confirmed the reality by stating that the rule of law in our country is under serious threat. Illegal wiretapping, the legal scandals related to the train accident in Tempi and strategic lawsuits as a means of pressure and intimidation have brought to light the direct influence of politics on the judiciary, especially in recent years. The non-execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the associations of our community for the past 17 years is perhaps the most obvious example of the systematic violation of the rule of law and the politicisation of law in our country. Our country, which is constantly playing for time in order not to execute the aforementioned judgments and ignoring the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, of which it is a member, continues to disregard international law”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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