During the meetings held as part of the working visit, the current issues facing the Turkish community in Western Thrace were discussed, with a particular focus on education, association, and religious freedom.
President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habip Oğlu, paid a working visit to Strasbourg on 21-22 April 2026, in conjunction with the Spring Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
During the working visit, accompanied by ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı, Habip Oğlu met with PACE President Petra Bayr, PACE Vice-President and Chairperson of the Finnish National Delegation to PACE Miapeta Kumpula-Natri, and Chairperson of the PACE Group of Socialists, Democrats and Greens Frank Schwabe, PACE Vice-President and Chairperson of the PACE Turkish National Delegation Yıldırım Tuğrul Türkeş, along with members of the PACE Turkish National Delegation, the Secretariat of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
Habip Oğlu pointed out that Greece has not executed the ECtHR judgments in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases, which includes associations of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, for the past 18 years, and noted that in the ‘‘Sagir and Others’’ case, filed by the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Xanthi which was not registered by the Greek national courts because of the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name, the ECtHR once again condemned Greece on the same grounds.
Habip Oğlu noted that, contrary to the educational autonomy guaranteed to the Turkish community in Western Thrace by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, Greek authorities have closed private and autonomous Turkish primary schools under the pretext of insufficient number of pupils. He further indicated that while there were 188 Turkish primary schools in Western Thrace in 2011, this number had dropped to 83 by the 2025-2026 school year.
Habip Oğlu stressed that while Greece does not interfere with the organisation and operation of the Orthodox Christian community—the prevailing religion under the country’s Constitution—and other known religious communities, it does not recognise the muftis elected by the Turkish community through its free will. In this regard, he explained that Greece continues to violate the Turkish community’s religious autonomy and freedom of religion—guaranteed by the conventions—by unilaterally appointing a mufti to Didymoteicho at the beginning of 2026 despite the Turkish community’s opposition from the very start, and by now initiating the process of appointing muftis to Xanthi and Komotini.
