EFA-Rainbow Delegation Visits Turkey

February 15, 2005

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An EFA-Rainbow delegation visited Turkey from 11-13 February,2005, after an invitation of the Ankara-based NGO "Social Developing Association," to attend a meeting focused on the situation of minority rights in Europe and Turkey.

The EFA-Rainbow delegation was accompanied by the Balkan Minority Issues Advisor of EFA-EPP (political party based in Brussels, in which Rainbow is a full member).

During the meeting, a wide discussion was made on the policies Greece implements towards minorities and the problems these policies produce, on the European experience in terms of respecting human and minority rights and the present situation in Turkey, in relevance with the country's European perspective.

The participants and the audience of the discussion were mainly politicians (MP's), scientists (University professors) and media representatives.

All of them showed great interest for the present situation and the problems of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as well as for the EFA-Rainbow activities in a national and international level.

The EFA-EPP Advisor also referred to the issue of the Kurds in Turkey and the respect of their rights.

It is worth mentioning that this was the first time that EFA-Rainbow received an invitation to participate in an event, taking place in Turkey..