ABTTF President: “Our country should execute the ECtHR judgments concerning our associations without further delay. If this does not happen, it will once again be confirmed that our country has no intention of executing the three relevant judgments and that it is politicising the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases’’.
At its meeting held in Strasbourg, France, on 10-12 June 2025, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe examined the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases concerning the violation of the freedom of association of the Turkish community in Western Thrace by Greece.
In its decision of 12 June, the Committee of Ministers recalled that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments concerning the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of the Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Xanthi, and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association in this group of cases concern violations of the right to freedom of association and once again criticised Greece for failing to execute the aforementioned ECtHR judgments for over 17 years.
It called on the Greek authorities to immediately examine the recommendations of the Committee of Experts they had established, to restore the previous situation (restitutio in integrum) to the applicant associations, which had exhausted all possibilities available to them within the domestic legal system, and to take the necessary measures within a clear and specific timeframe to effectively prevent similar violations.
The Committee of Ministers encouraged the Greek authorities to make full use of the assistance and expertise of the Council of Europe in this field, including the Venice Commission, to ensure compliance of any proposed measures with the standards of the Convention and decided to resume its examination of the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases at its meeting in December 2025 to review the progress achieved.
The Committee of Experts established last year to make recommendations on the steps to be taken by Greece to execute the ECtHR judgments against it, including the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases, completed its report at the end of May 2025 and submitted it to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. In its report, the Committee of Experts made a series of recommendations to the Greek state, including constitutional amendments, training for members of the judiciary, new legal regulations, and strengthening monitoring and oversight mechanisms.
‘‘The Committee of Ministers has asked Greece to consider the recommendations of the Committee of Experts and to submit a timetable for the urgent execution of the ECtHR judgments concerning the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases. The ball is now in the court of the Greek authorities. Our country must execute the ECtHR judgments concerning our associations without further delay. If this does not happen, it will once again be confirmed that our country has no intention of executing the three relevant judgments and that it is politicising the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases. Our country has been disregarding its obligations arising from the European Convention on Human Rights for years. At this point, we once again reiterate our call for the Committee of Ministers to consider initiating an infringement procedure against our country’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
Please click below to access the relevant decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cm/-/1531st-human-rights-meeting-of-the-ministers-deputies-10-12-june-2025
