ABTTF President: “Through the written opinion we prepared regarding the GNCHR’s 2025 annual report, we aimed to highlight the problems faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the human rights violations to which they are subjected, which were not addressed in the report.”
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) has submitted its written opinion on the 2025 annual report of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR) to the relevant Greek authorities.
In its written opinion, ABTTF criticised the GNCHR’s annual report for completely disregarding the long-standing structural problems faced by the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace– the only officially recognised minority in Greece – as well as the human rights violations and discrimination to which it is subjected, noting that this constituted the report’s most significant shortcoming.
Pointing out that the report fails to address Greece’s denial of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace’s ethnic Turkish identity, the systematic violation of its treaty-guaranteed educational and religious autonomy, and the institutionalised hate speech directed against the Minority, ABTTF emphasised that the problems faced by the Minority constitute fundamental human rights issues—issues that have been the subject of binding European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments against Greece, the long-standing review process of the Committee of Ministers of the Council, recommendations by United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms, and assessments by European Union (EU) institutions.
ABTTF noted that Greece has persistently failed to execute the ECtHR’s judgments against it in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases concerning Turkish associations for over 18 years, and that the muftis freely elected by the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace are not recognised by the state, and that Turkish primary schools in Western Thrace have been closed on the pretext of low number of pupils, in breach of its educational autonomy.
Calling on the GNCHR’s to comprehensively address the problems and human rights violations faced by the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace in its future annual reports, thereby bringing them to light, ABTTF requested that the GNCHR regularly monitor developments concerning the Minority and establish regular dialogue mechanisms with the Minority’s representative bodies and civil society organisations.
“As ABTTF, through the written opinion we prepared regarding the GNCHR’s 2025 annual report – an independent advisory body established by law – we aimed to highlight the problems faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the human rights violations to which they are subjected, which were not addressed in the report. In its future annual reports, the GNCHR must ensure that the human rights situation of our community is included as an integral part of the overall human rights situation in our country, Greece. In this way, the GNCHR’s work towards the protection of human rights in our country will be more inclusive and comprehensive’’. said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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