The speech made by Cemile Yusuf at the 11th Session of Working Group on Minorities

Thank you Mr. Chairman,

my name is Cemile Giousouf, I am representing the Federation of Western Thrace Turcs in Europe an umbrella organisation, with an Europewide membership of local associations, dealing with various issues of the Turkish Minority in Greece. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to come into dialogue with our governments.

Allow me to begin with the opinion of an Analyst:

"The official ideology of the Greek State has been built almost exclusively around the concept of a single nation, with a common creed and language. This incontrovertible fact is reflected in, [amongst other things,] all the constitutions by which the country has been governed in its 160-year history.“

In our opinion Greek has to overcome this State ideology to improve the political, economical and social life of all it’s citizens.

Unfortunately there is only a very weak acceptance of foreigners (strangers with non-hellenic origin) in Greece which is reflected by the acceptance-rate of asylum-seekers. This ranges amongst the lowest in Europe. According to the UNHCR, there has been an admittance of mere 36 out of 5664 applicants on the basis of the Geneva convention in 2002 plus further 64 applications that have been accepted for humanitarian reasons- statistically 1.1%

Concerning the Turkish Minority, we were affected by exclusive policy through Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law (No: 3370 of 1955), which stated that "A person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without the intention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek citizenship. This also applies to a person of non-Greek ethnic origin born and domiciled abroad.“ The Ministry of Interior Affairs made public that in the period from 1955 to 1998 about 46.638 Turks were deprived of Greek nationality and no steps has been taken to reinstate these people, yet.

This government policy is reflected in Greek society at large which generally holds a similar negative attitude. When last year in September the so-called ‘youth parliament’ – iniciated by the Greek writer Antonis Samarakis and bringing together the country’s best schoolchildren – congregated, the socio-political proposals made by these 16- to 18-year-olds were highly (problematic/) deeply troubling: in one of their declarations, the 350 children asked for a cutting of the number of foreigners to 300.000 and, furthermore, tied immigration issues to a catalogue of criteria hard to fulfill. Moreover, these ‘young intellectuals’ encouraged the state to adopt a tougher policy towards Western Thrace. Needless to say, these tendencies are deeply troubling, especially when they can be found in the young enlightened Greeks potentially leading the country in the future.

This general attitude of rejection is also applied when it comes to Greek citizens with non-hellenic origins.

Still, one of the most important issues for the Turkish minority is the question of identity:
The struggle between the Greek state’s insistence on a „Muslim minority“ and the community’s self-determination as a ‚Turkish minority‘ is ongoing;

The most current examples are the cases of the „Turkish Union of Xanthi“ and the „Cultural women association of Rhodopi“, which were banned by the Supreme Court this year for calling themselves „Turkish“.

We like to stress that for us this politics of denial is utterly incomprehensible. In the 1950s – when Turkey and Greece joined the NATO – the Turkish identity found recognition. (Engl. quote) „Minority schools and other associations were denominated as ‚Turkish‘.

Today, however, we have to face the arbitrary acts of the state of Greece, claiming that the „Turkish Union of Xanthi“ which exists since 1927 poses a threat to national security. This has led to the creation of a climate of mutual suspicion and recrimination, between the minority and the state. As we all know, these minority issues are not just a case of decisions within the realm of domestic politics, but are also determined by inter-state relations to Turkey; we want to stress the point, that our focus is on Athens and not on Ankara.

In systematically denying to the minority basic rights, such as the acquisition of property or the expansion of economic activity, state policy has put an absolute block on the development of Turkish-inhabited areas, has sustained the region’s dependence on agriculture and has distorted its economy as a whole. Our minority of 150.000 Turks is concentrated in the provinces of Rodopi and Xanthi. Our community and region continue to be among the least developed in Greece and in the whole of Europe.
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Unfortunately, one can observe a significant tendency among women to marry at an early age, since marriage – for most preferably into developed countries – is frequently the sole perspective when it comes to economic chance and wealth.

The treatment of Thrace’s minority stimulated emigration to Turkey for economic reasons but also to Europe. It was only a matter of time before the relegation of Thrace’s minority to a second-class citizenship acquired an explicit political dimension.

The bad state in which most minority schools find themselves in adds to this disconcerting status.
As of September 2003 the number of minority schools in Western Thrace lowered to 226 (Actually there are 230 schools, but 4 or 5 of them no longer have students).

Minority education has been the target of constant interference by the Government. Consequently, the autonomous nature of the education underwent radical changes in spite of the Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne, which guarantees the right to establish and manage minority schools. As a result, the quality of education substantially eroded.

Currently minority schools are governed by a series of complex restrictive laws. In its present form, theTurkish minority’s education system can not possibly serve fundamental educational needs. Nor can it help build mutual respect and confidence between the citizen and the State.

Towards the end of 2003 two decrees have been passed by the parliament to provide government funds to minority schools. Regional authorities also started distributing computers and other educational equipment to minority schools.

Although such improvements would normally receive positive reactions, in an atmosphere lacking transparency and dialogue, the government’s surprising willingness to co-operate is skeptically observed by the minority. The reasons for such a skepticism should be clear: it is triggered off by the fear that the schools could lose their autonomy in educational matters - particularly at a time when the government refuses to return the administration of the charitable foundations to the people. All of this creates hesitation and generates suspicion about the ulterior motives – another reminder of how important dialogue and transparent minority policy is:

Recommendation:

- We kindly ask our Government to make further steps to improve the conditions of the elected school boards

- We like to ask of the Greek government a more responsible approach to the co-existence of the Greek majority with its minorities, of its indigenous people with the immigrants, as well as to civil rights issues connected to these relations.

That includes the improvement of the curricula with regard to the instruction of democratic and anti-racist values in accordance to a state under the rule of law. Only then can those hostile tendencies be avoided that have been at the center of our report. Such an attempt would also have to include the ban on hate speech and xenophobia in Greek mass media.

- Design more exchange programs or cultural events in cooperation with Turkey to reverse the strident nationalist rhetoric that has dominated relations for so long.

- Poverty and structural weaknesses are problems not only for the minorities – they affect the majority as well. The stimulation and fostering of a feeling of responsibility can help to dismantle the mutual barriers. We thus call for social projects that may contribute to generating a consciousness for the needs of this economically weak region.


Mr. Chairman,
dear Working Group members, thank you for your attention.