The delegation of Western Thrace Turks, comprising representatives from ABTTF, WTMUGA and the FEP Party, raised the issues facing the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace.
Representing the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (WTMUGA) and the Friendship, Equality and Peace (FEP) Party, attended the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on the theme of “Safeguarding Civic Space in the Digital Age”, held in Vienna, the capital of Austria, on 11–12 May 2026.
The second Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting of the year, co-organised by the Swiss OSCE Chairpersonship, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, was attended by Fuat Ali and Melek Kırmacı on behalf of ABTTF, Dr Pervin Hayrullah on behalf of WTMUGA, and Kerem Abdurahimoğlu on behalf of the FEP Party.
Speaking during the first session of the meeting, titled “Digital threats to civil space”, the FEP Party highlighted that members and representatives of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace are constantly targeted on digital platforms and subjected to hate speech, indicating that social media posts following the conference on national minorities they organised at the European Parliament (EP) also contained calls for exile, ethnic cleansing and death threats.
Speaking at the same session, WTMUGA stated that members of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, as well as educators and civil society actors belonging to the Turkish minority, were hesitant to express their identities, cross-border cultural ties and views on minority rights due to concerns that their communications on digital platforms could be monitored and that they might face administrative sanctions.
Intervening in the session titled “Disinformation and civic space: implications for human rights and democracy”, WTMUGA noted that the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, along with its political representatives and civil society actors, had recently been subjected to smear campaigns and disinformation. As the most concrete example of this situation, they cited the case of FEP Party President Çiğdem Asafoğlu, who had become the target of sexist and discriminatory rhetoric.
Speaking at the same session, ABTTF emphasised that the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace is portrayed in Greece as a “national threat” or a “representative of foreign powers”, and that this fuels prejudice and hostility within society. Noting that an Athens-based news site had published a report containing baseless and inflammatory statements about ABTTF, and that they had subsequently filed a claim for damages in the Greek courts with the appeal process ongoing, ABTTF drew attention to the fact that the publication of photographs of leading representatives of the Turkish minority in a local Greek newspaper, thereby singling them out, posed a serious risk in terms of freedom of expression and personal safety.
Speaking at the third session titled “Strengthening digital resilience for the protection of civic space”, ABTTF noted that recent reports prepared by international organisations had highlighted the weakening of judicial independence in Greece and restrictions affecting civil society, stating that these developments were particularly concerning for the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, noting that the Turkish minority faces structural issues regarding the violation of its freedom of association by Greece and the failure to execute the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments concerning the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases.
Intervening at the same session, WTMUGA explained that the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace is being stigmatised in the local Greek media through unfounded reports, stressing that Greece’s denial of the Turkish minority’s Turkish identity creates a conducive environment for this, and that in lawsuits filed by members of the Turkish minority over false reports, individuals with a political affiliation may act as parties.
The FEP Party, which took the floor during this session, highlighted that Greece’s denial of the Turkish identity of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, restrictions on minority rights and religious freedoms, and its refusal to engage in dialogue with representatives of the Turkish minority, when considered alongside the digital dimension, exacerbate the impact of the issue. The FEP Party, together with the European Free Alliance (EFA), called on Greece to cooperate in order to protect the Turkish, Macedonian, Vlach, Albanian and other national minorities in the country, as well as human rights defenders, from the dangers of the digital sphere.
Greece, which exercised its right of reply in all sessions, claimed that the minority in (Western) Thrace is defined as a “Muslim minority” on the basis of religion under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, and that its members, as Greek citizens, enjoy constitutional rights and freedoms and can engage in media activities within the legal framework, just like all other Greek citizens.
