Problems of Western Thrace Turkish minority presented to PACE

Halit Habipo�lu, Chairman of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe and Mustafa Develi, member of ABTTF International Initiative Work Group conveyed information about the problems of Western Thrace Turkish minority to members of European Parliament and political officers. They demanded for a solution of Western Thrace Turkish minoritys citizenship problems and asked Terry Davis to support the political efforts.

The representatives of ABTTF were in Strasbourg as the first meeeting of the Parlimentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) took place between the dates 23 28 January 2006. They conveyed the problems of Western Thrace Turkish minority in Greece to 46 representatives of European countries in the European Parliement and the political officers.

Meeting with Greek Delegation

Representatives of ABTTF visited Greek delegation during their visit to PACE. They met Elsa Papadimitriou, chairman of the Greek delegation and Charalambos Manessis, diplomat. They conveyed the problems of the Western Thrace Turkish minority in Greece to the Greek parliamentarians. They demanded for the reimbursement citizenship and acceptance the cultural ethnic identity of the other minorities like Macedonian, Wallachian and Albanian together with Turkish minority.

The representatives of ABTTF informed the Greek parliamentarians about the existence of a commission to organize minority education. This commission was formed without public announcement and none of the commission members are from ethnic minorities. The Greek parliamentarians declared that they did have neither information about the existence of such a commission nor its formation method.

The letter that was written by Halit Habipo�lu to the chairman of the Greek delegation, Elsa Papadimitriou, about the problems of Western Thrace Turkish minority was also discussed during the meeting with the Greek delegation. The chairman declared the reason not to answer the letter as the aim of the minority to separate Greece.

This meeting has a great importance while the representatives of Greece government established contact with the Western Thrace Turkish minority delegation for the first time. Habipo�lu evaluated this first contact as Greece, our country, refused to open the dialog channels with us until now and I wish, this policy comes to an end. Habipo�lu continued as It is not logical to have fear of minorities that make up only 1 - 1,5 % of the total population. We contribute to the cultural wealth of country and Europe. Our unique aim is to live peacefully and work for the goodness and welfare of our country all together but they do not give us this chance.

Demanding Support for Notice of Question

ABTTF asked for support from the members of European Parliament to give a notice of question to the European Parliement aimining a political solution for the Western Thrace Turkish minoritys citizenship problems.

Boris Clevics from Lithuania, Jo�o Bosco Mota Amaral from Portugal, Fatma Ilyas from Bulgaria and Fatma Pehlivan from Belgium promised for political support for such an initiative. The minorities in Turkey and Greece are going to be analyzed in the same report that is named Common Reportand Habipo�lu evaluated this latest development as We have already declared our doubts about the common report that analyzes the situation of minorities in Turkey and Greece together, but the officicers gave verbal guarantee that the report is going to be under the responsibility of an qualified rapporteur. I hope the reciprocity principle is not going to dominate the content of the report and it is not going to have the same consequence of the former reports on Western Thrace Turkish minority as they were forgotten and shelved.

Meeting with Terry Davis

Representatives of ABTTF had the opportunity to give the documents that present the activities of ABTTF; the Western Thrace Turkish minority in Greece and the report Legalized Racism: Expatriation Applications on the bases of 19th Article of the Greek Citizenship Law and Problems of Victimsto Terry Davis.

Terry Davis listened to the problems of the Western Thrace Turkish minority carefully and he could not keep his confusion when he learned that the unfair application of the Article 19 of Greek Citizenship Law was only in practice for the minority members that did not have Greek origin.

The report about the unfair denaturalization process was given to the assistant and also to Jahn Dahlhousen, office responsible of Gil Robles, Commisser of the European Council of Human Rights

The documents are going to be taken into attention in the preparation phase of the report.

Halit Habipo�lu evaluated the visit and said There was a great interest for our effort and for the situation of the Western Thrace Turkish minority. This interest gives us motivation for future initiatives as we see our efforts gain feedback in the direction of our target.

We are proud of arousing such a big interest. We hope all these visits and meeting help us transform Western Thrace to a better place where people can live in peace and their rights are respected. We believe that our political steps ease the process and the people are going to get what they deserve for a long time.

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