President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habip Oğlu paid a working visit to Strasbourg from 29 September to 1 October 2025, in parallel with the Autumn Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
During the working visit, accompanied by ABTTF Director of International Relations Melek Kırmacı, Habip Oğlu raised the current issues and human rights violations faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace in his meetings with PACE members and Council of Europe bodies.
Habip Oğlu emphasised that Greece has persistently failed to execute the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases, which includes Turkish associations in Western Thrace, for over 17 years. He further referred to the unanimous judgment rendered by the Court on 24 June 2025 regarding the case known as ‘‘Sagir and Others’’, which was filed by the Cultural Association of Turkish Women from the Prefecture of Xanthi, which had not been registered by Greek national courts on grounds of the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name. He added that Greece was once again condemned for violating Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Habip Oğlu also stated that, contrary to the educational autonomy guaranteed to the Turkish community in Western Thrace by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, Turkish primary schools are closed by the Greek authorities on the pretext of insufficient number of pupils. He noted that while there were 194 Turkish primary schools in the Western Thrace region in 2008, this number had fallen to 83 in 2025-2026 due to closures.
Habip Oğlu noted that the Turkish primary school in the village of Paleo Zigos (Mizanlı), which was closed in 2023, was not re-opened by the Greek authorities in the 2025-2026 school year despite reaching the required number of pupils. However, he stated that last year, the primary school in the village of Argiri in the province of Karditsa was re-opened for only one pupil, and this year the primary school on Pserimos Island re-opened for only 2 pupils.
Furthermore, Habip Oğlu pointed out that although pre-school education is compulsory in Greece, there is not even a single bilingual Turkish kindergarten in the Western Thrace region where the Turkish community lives. He stressed that the Greek authorities have still not met the Turkish community in Western Thrace’s request for a new building for the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School, and that pupils are forced to continue studying in the current building, which lacks the infrastructure necessary for modern education.
