Press Office of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF)-
Witten, 23 June 2005
Press Release:
“Please put the Western Thrace on your agenda, too!”
The President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), Mr. Halit Habiboglu addressed the Turkish and Greek Delegation Heads in the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), respectively Murat Mercan and Elsa Papadimitrou, who have reached a compromise about the Greek foundations on the islands of Gökceada and Bozcaada, and appealed from them to put also the foundations in the Western Thrace on their agenda.
The President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), Mr. Halit Habiboglu made statements upon the news appeared in the press that the Turkish and Greek delegation heads in the PACE had reached a gentlemanliness agreement to solve the possession problems of the Greek minority through the means of dialogue, and said: “We have been experiencing the problem of minority foundations for years much more in our country Greece, a member of the European Union, and on the other hand, this minority foundations’ problem is being brought in front of Turkey again and again, which is a candidate country to the European Union. When the Lausanne Treaty was signed, the Western Thrace Turks possessed 85% of the land, and today they possess only 30% of it. Due to the nationalization, the land consolidations, and the encouragement of the Greek farmers by the state that they buy the lands of the minority, we have lost our lands. When we consider that the minority has been recently entitled to the right to acquire property, our properties have been taken away from us in a premeditated way. Today, however, we have to pay rentals in order to use our own lands, which have been nationalized with very low values and are not being used at all.” Mr. Habipoglu made it clear that since the junta, which had taken over the government in 1967 in Greece, the administration of the foundations, which were the basic part of our minority, had been taken away from the minority’s control, and the executive boards were being formed through the appointments by the state, and discussed: “The administration of our foundations, which have very important missions ranging from building schools to the payment of the salaries of the teachers and the religious functionaries, and the financing of social activities for the minority, has been taken away from our control for almost 40 years. Since we cannot determine the executives of our institutions, we cannot also supervise them.” Mr. Habipoglu said also that while the Jewish and the Catholic foundations in Greece did not face such problems, it made no sense that the Western Thrace Turks, who were also Greek citizens like the others, were being victimized because of the principle of reciprocity, and continued as follows: “Although the compromise reached in the PACE between the heads of the Turkish and Greek delegations reminds us the principle of “reciprocity” we do not really approve, we demand the same ground of compromise and dialogue for the Western Thrace Turks, since we see a good will in this initiative. We expect from the Turkish and Greek delegations that they set the environment for peace and tolerance in the Aegean without ignoring our problems.”
