ABTTF raised the issue of Greece’s systematic violation of the Turkish community in Western Thrace’s freedom of association.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) and the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (WTMUGA), representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace, participated in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Human Dimension Conference held in Warsaw, Poland, from 6 to 17 October 2025.
Organised by the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office of Finland with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the ten-day conference addressed the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the OSCE region and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act. The Turkish community in Western Thrace was represented by K. Engin Soyyılmaz from ABTTF and Kerem Abdurahimoğlu from WTMUGA.
Speaking at the conference, which was attended by 57 OSCE participating States, OSCE institutions, international organisations and civil society representatives, ABTTF addressed the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, including in the session on tolerance and non-discrimination on 13 October. ABTTF noted that associations bearing the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in their names, representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace whose status and rights were defined by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, operated officially in Greece without any obstacles for approximately 50 years after that date. However, as a result of the Greek state’s policy of denying the Turkish presence and identity in the country, the oldest association of the Turkish community, the Xanthi Turkish Union (ITB), founded in 1927, was dissolved in 1986 because of the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name.
ABTTF pointed out that Greece has failed to execute three judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerning the Turkish associations in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for over 17 years and has politicised it over the years. It further indicated that in 2010, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Xanthi, which was not registered on grounds that the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name was misleading and could cause issues in terms of public order, won its case against Greece at the ECtHR. ABTTF stated that in its unanimous judgment on 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) on freedom of assembly and association.
Noting that this latest ECtHR judgment addressed the same fundamental issue as its 2007 and 2008 rulings, ABTTF explained that the dissolution or non-registration of associations with the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in their names in Greece was not an individual or isolated case but pointed to the existence of a systematic issue.
In this context, ABTTF highlighted that the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report also referred to the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases in its section on Greece, emphasising that the European Commission thus confirmed the decline in the rule of law in Greece in recent years. ABTTF called on Greece to fully and effectively execute the ECtHR’s judgments concerning the associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and to remove the obstacles to the registration of associations whose names include the words ‘‘Turkish’’, “Minority” or ‘‘Western Thrace’’ in light of the ECtHR’s judgments and case-law.
