The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) submitted a written contribution to the fourth cycle (2022-2027) of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, which reviews the human rights performance of all member States, regarding the problems and human rights violations suffered by the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
In its written contribution, ABTTF reported on the status of implementation of the recommendations concerning the Turkish community in Western Thrace contained in the report on Greece adopted at the 49th session of the UPR Working Group during the third cycle.
ABTTF noted that, whilst the UPR Working Group’s report recommended the protection of persons belonging to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities in Greece against all forms of discrimination and the strengthening of plans and policies to safeguard minority rights, Greece ranks among the countries with the worst track record in Europe regarding the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities.
Highlighting that Greece denies the ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, ABTTF indicated that Greece has failed to execute the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases regarding associations that were dissolved or not registered because the word ‘‘Turkish’’ appeared in their respective names, and that these judgments have not been executed by Greece for the past 18 years. ABTTF called on the UPR Working Group to request concrete and clear information from the Greek authorities regarding the timeline for the steps they will take to ensure the execution of the aforementioned ECtHR judgments.
ABTTF noted that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne granted the Turkish community in Western Thrace autonomy in the fields of education and religion, but also explained that as a result of the decision to close primary schools nationwide with fewer than nine pupils—taken by the government in 2010 as part of austerity measures—being applied to primary schools belonging to the Turkish community that held a special and autonomous status, there has been a very rapid decline in the number of Turkish primary schools from 2011 to the present day, and noted that the number of Turkish primary schools, which stood at 188 in 2011, had fallen to 83 by the 2025–2026 school year.
Noting that the religious autonomy of the Turkish community in Western Thrace was established by the 1913 Treaty of Athens and guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, ABTTF stipulated that whilst Greece does not interfere with the organisation and functioning of the communities of other known religions in the country, it does not recognise the muftis elected by the Turkish community through its own free will; furthermore, by unilaterally appointing a mufti to Didymoteicho, Greece has once again disregarded the religious autonomy of the Turkish community.
ABTTF added that the Turkish community in Western Thrace is subjected to hate speech in politics and the mainstream Greek media, stating that leading representatives of the Turkish community are being stigmatised and that unfounded and defamatory reports are being published about them, and that such reports carry the risk of fostering prejudice and false perceptions against the Turkish community within society at large.
ABTTF called on Greece to recognise the ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, to restore its educational and religious autonomy—which has been largely undermined over the years by various legal changes and arbitrary practices—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 (ECRML).
Greece will also be examined at the 53rd session of the UPR Working Group, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2 to 13 November 2026, as part of the fourth cycle. During this session, the Working Group will conduct its review of Greece, considering the written contributions submitted by ABTTF and other civil society organisations regarding Greece.
