In its parallel report, ABTTF detailed the issues faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace, as well as the human rights violations and discrimination they are subjected to.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) submitted its parallel report on the 2024 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Greece 2024 published by the Department of State of the United States (U.S.) to the relevant U.S. authorities.
In its parallel report, ABTTF noted that this year’s report on Greece, whose scope has been significantly narrowed, is biased, lacks objectivity, and is pro-government, completely ignoring the human rights violations and systematic breaches of the rule of law occurring in the country. It expressed its disappointment that the report makes no mention whatsoever of the issues faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace or the rights violations it suffers.
Noting that the Turkish community in Western Thrace is considered taboo in Greece because it is seen as a national issue, ABTTF underscored that, unfortunately, there is no realistic and objective debate on issues related to the Turkish community in the mainstream Greek media.
Moreover, ABTTF stated that the educational autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace was guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but that over the years, complex legal provisions and government practices have effectively eliminated this autonomous structure in education.
ABTTF emphasised that, despite pre-school education being compulsory in Greece, there is not even a single bilingual Turkish kindergarten in the Western Thrace region where the Turkish community lives. It noted that, contrary to the Turkish community’s educational autonomy, Greek authorities closed Turkish primary schools in the region on grounds of lack of sufficient number of pupils, and that while there were 194 Turkish primary schools in 2008, this number had fallen to 83 by 2025-2026 due to closures.
Furthermore, ABTTF noted that the Turkish primary school in the village of Paleo Zigos (Mizanlı), which was closed in 2023, did not re-open in the 2025-2026 school year despite reaching the required number of pupils, and stressed that Greece’s real aim is to completely eliminate the educational autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
ABTTF also explained that, as a result of Greece’s policy of denying the ethnic identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, it dissolved or refused to register associations with the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in their names, adding that Greece has persistently failed to execute three judgments by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the ‘‘Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases’’, which includes the dissolved Xanthi Turkish Union and the unregistered Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association, for over 17 years.
In addition, ABTTF stated that, despite the ECtHR’s 2007 and 2008 judgments against Greece, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Xanthi, which applied for registration with the competent court in 2010, was not registered because of the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name. The association, having exhausted domestic legal remedies, appealed to the ECtHR. ABTTF noted that in its unanimous judgment of 24 June 2025 in the case of ‘‘Sagir and Others’’, the ECtHR ruled that Greece had once again violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Finally, ABTTF called on Greece to restore the educational autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, and to ratify the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
