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EUROPE
The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe issues warning to Greece regarding “return hubs”
21.07.2026
ABTTF President: “The Commissioner’s approach demonstrates that the Council of Europe’s mechanisms are concerned not only with actual violations but also with practices that pose a serious risk to human rights. The full execution of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases i...
The European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report has been published
17.07.2026
The Country Chapter on Greece includes the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases regarding the violation of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace’s freedom of association. On 17 July 2026, the European Commission published its 2026 Rule of Law Report, covering the 27 EU Member States as well as potential EU members Albania, Montenegro, No...
News article on the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace on a German-language news portal in Italy
10.07.2026
A news article focusing on the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace was published on the German-language news portal Südtirol Online (stol.it) in Italy on 5 July 2026. In a news feature titled “Yes to the minority? Yes, but only if it is their own,” journalist Hatto Schmidt emphasises that Greece’s reaction lays bare i...
The systematic violation of the freedom of association of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace was raised at the PACE Plenary
03.07.2026
On 23 June 2026, the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) submitted a letter regarding the Court of Appeals of Thrace's rejection of the appeal filed by the Western Thrace Fenerbahçe Cultural and Sports Association—an organisation previously ordered to be dissolved by the Court of First Instance of Rodopi on grounds...
FUEN’s report titled “Educational Situation of Minorities 2025 and Recent Developments’’ has been published
01.07.2026
The report titled “Educational Situation of Minorities 2025 and Recent Developments’’, prepared by the Education Working Group of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), has been published. Prepared based on information provided by member organisations regarding the educational situation of ten national minorities i...
In its report on Albania, the European Parliament called for the protection of the rights of the Greek minority
24.06.2026
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 th...
Greeks in Poland have been officially recognised as a national minority
16.06.2026
ABTTF President: “Our country, which boasts at every opportunity of being the cradle of democracy, has a policy toward national minorities and a level of respect for minority rights that cannot even be compared to Poland. Our country, which disregards the rights of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace—rights guaranteed by internationa...
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has called on Greece to execute the ECtHR judgments in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases without delay
12.06.2026
ABTTF President: “If our country fails to take concrete steps by December 2026 to execute the final judgments of the ECtHR concerning our associations, we demand that the Committee of Ministers initiate the infringement procedure against our country under Article 46, paragraph 4 of the Convention for disregarding its obligations under the Con...
According to the EU Justice Scoreboard 2026, the majority of the public in Greece do not believe that the judiciary is independent
05.06.2026
ABTTF President: “As the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, we are both direct witnesses to and victims of the problems in the functioning of our country’s judicial system and the systematic violation of the rule of law. For 18 years, our country has persistently failed to executed the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments c...
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution on the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report
29.04.2026
In its resolution adopted on 29 April 2026, the European Parliament (EP), emphasising that the European Union (EU) is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities, noted that these values must be consistently up...
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