The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) delivered a presentation on the Turkish community in Western Thrace at the meeting of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group on 9 April 2025 in parallel with the Spring Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
During the working visit to Strasbourg within the framework of the presentation at the ALDE group meeting, the latest current developments in the region were also conveyed during the meetings with politicians and bureaucrats.
During the group meeting hosted by ALDE Group President Iulian Bulai (Romania), ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı conveyed the issues faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the field of ethnic recognition and freedom of association and the problems experienced in education at all levels within the framework of the dismantlement of the autonomous structure in education.
In its presentation at the ALDE group meeting, ABTTF indicated that the Turkish community in Western Thrace was granted autonomy in the field of education and religion by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but that this autonomous structure has been dismantled over the years. ABTTF further explained the process in which the ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish minority in the region was rejected and the associations with the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in their names were dissolved. ABTTF stated that the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases, which includes the Xanthi Turkish Union, Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association and Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Prefecture of Rodopi have been persistently not executed by Greece for the past 17 years. ABTTF further noted that the next review of the Committee of Ministers will take place in June 2025 and that they demanded the full and immediate execution of the three ECtHR judgments in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases, but Greece pursued a strategy to delay the execution of the aforementioned judgments by prolonging the process.
In its presentation, ABTTF expressed the issues faced in the autonomised education system and explained that there are no bilingual Turkish kindergartens in our region and that the applications made in this regard are rejected. ABTTF pointed out that the number of Turkish primary schools at the primary school level is rapidly decreasing and indicated that the decision taken in 2010 to close public schools with less than 9 students within the scope of the financial measure was also applied to the autonomous Turkish schools. ABTTF noted that the number of Turkish primary schools, which was 188 in 2011, decreased to 86 in the 2024-2025 school year following this decision of the ministry. ABTTF explained that if this trend continues, the Turkish school system will disappear in the long run because the state’s main aim is to dismantle the Turkish school system instead of strengthening it.
Moreover, ABTTF touched upon the long-standing building issue at the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School at the secondary school level and reminded that following the confusion of competencies between the Ministry of Education and Municipality of Xanthi, the Ministry will renovate the school building but the main demand for a new school building is still not met.
ABTTF drew the attention of the ALDE group MPs to the issues faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace in Greece, which boasts of being the cradle of democracy, and asked for the support of the MPs in their work at PACE. ABTTF explained that the rule of law in Greece is under serious threat, which is also stipulated in the reports of the European Commission and international non-governmental organisations, and that this alarming situation in Greece, a member of the Council, directly affects members of national minorities and thus requested PACE to be vigilant and take necessary steps in this regard.
