Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association Human Rights Council Forum on Minority Issues Fifth Session Geneva, 27-28 November 2012 Contact Persons: Pervin Hayrullah (Chairoula) chairoulap@yahoo.com Dr. Ali Huseyinoglu (Chouseinoglou) alihuseyinoglul @gmail.com Approximately 150.000 Muslim Turkish People live in Western Thrace - the northeast part of Greece. The legal status of this minority was established by the Peace Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the bilateral agreements signed between Greece and Turkey and the international instruments concerning human and minority rights, which Greece signed and ratified. Education and religious freedom are amongst the fundamental issues creating tension and controversy between the Greek state and the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace. As it is highlighted in Articles 2, 4, and 6 of the 1992 UN Declaration, States should provide necessary conditions for members of minorities to practice their own religion freely as well as getting instruction in their mother tongue. Article 2 2. Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (hereinafter referred to as persons belonging to minorities) have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination. 3. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. Article 4 4. States shall take measures where required to ensure that persons belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law.