ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu: “While Greece defends the rights of the Greek minority in Albania, it systematically violates the fundamental rights of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace within its own borders”
At its session held in Strasbourg on 17 June 2026, the European Parliament (EP) Plenary adopted progress reports on the European Union accession processes of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Montenegro.
The report on Albania, prepared by the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and with Austrian MEP Andreas Schieder serving as rapporteur, made specific reference to the Greek national minority that has historically resided in southern Albania. The European Parliament called on the Albanian authorities to effectively protect the property rights of the Greek national minority, emphasising that safeguarding these rights is crucial for the rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights.
The resolution, adopted by the European Parliament’s Plenary Session on 17 June, is significant because it explicitly refers to the historical presence and property rights of the Greek national minority in Albania. As is well known, in the European Commission’s reports on Albania and during EU accession negotiations, the Greek national minority had become one of the most sensitive issues, frequently leading to diplomatic crises between Albania and Greece and directly affecting the accession process. Greece had made full respect for the rights of the Greek minority a prerequisite for Albania’s progress toward EU membership.
This is because, in a speech delivered on 17 June in the Greek Parliament, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis highlighted the expropriation of lands along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts—particularly in the Himara region, where the Greek minority is concentrated—for tourism investments, as well as the planned construction of luxury tourism facilities along the Adriatic coast, , particularly in the Himara region where the Greek minority is concentrated, as well as along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, on grounds that these projects violate the property rights of the Greek minority in the region.
“We are closely monitoring Greece’s sensitivity regarding the rights of the Greek national minority in Albania. Yet, at the same time, Greece denies the ethnic identity of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace within its own borders, refuses to register their associations based on mere assumptions, and dissolves them; moreover, it continues to ignore the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights on this matter, which have remained non-executed for over 18 years. Moreover, Greece continues to interfere with the religious autonomy of the Turkish Minority. What a great contradiction it is that Greece, while defending the rights of the Greek minority in Albania on the one hand, systematically violates the fundamental rights of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace within its own borders on the other. More importantly, while the European Union strictly monitors candidate countries on minority rights, it lacks an effective mechanism to protect the rights of national minorities living in Member States and to impose sanctions for violations.Consequently, some Member States, such as Greece, can use the rights of minorities in other countries as a tool for political pressure during the EU accession process, yet face no serious scrutiny for violations occurring within their own borders. This situation, which amounts to a double standard on the part of the EU, results in the aggrievement of national minorities within the EU’s borders”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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