The European Federation of Western Thrace Turks responded to the statement of the government speaker and Deputy Prime Minister of Greece Pavlos Marinakis that they are “strengthening the rule of law.”
The statement of the European Federation of Western Thrace Turks notes that Marinakis’ words about “strengthening the rule of law” do not reflect the current situation in the country.
The statement emphasizes that, despite criticism in the EU reports, the representative government ignores violations of the rule of law and legal problems that have arisen in recent times.
The authors of the document draw attention to the problems that the Turkic community of Western Thrace has faced for many years, highlighting that the Greek government has failed to implement three decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding minority associations for 17 years.
The statement calls on government officials to “stop distorting the facts” and “be sincere and honest efforts” to solve problems.
Greek Deputy Prime Minister Marinakis, in his speech in parliament, said that the government’s “work to strengthen the rule of law” is bringing results.
Closed associations and decisions of the ECHR
Founded in 1927, the Iskechey Turkic Association (ITA), founded in 1928, the Gumuljin Turkic Youth Association (GTMA) and the West Thracian Turkic Teachers’ Association (WTHTA), founded in 1936, were closed in the 1980s on the grounds that their names contained the word “Turkic”, were closed in the 1980s on the grounds that the minority in Western Thrace in the Treaty of Lausanne was defined not as “Turkic” but as “Muslim”.
Provincial Minority Youth Association Merić and the Cultural Association of Turkic Women of the Rhodope Province, which were denied registration, together with the closed ITUB took the matter to the ECHR in 2005.
In its decisions in 2007 and 2008, the court ruled that Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), concerning freedom of assembly and association, had been violated.
On the other hand, a legislative amendment aimed at adaptation of the ECHR decisions, over the protest of opposition parties, was approved by the Greek Parliament in 2017 with the addition of the phrase “the decision cannot be applied when national security is at stake.”