Avrupa Batı Trakya Türk Federasyonu Föderation der West-Thrakien Türken in Europa Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe Ευρωπαϊκή Ομοσπονδία Τούρκων Δυτικής Θράκης Fédération des Turcs de Thrace Occidentale en Europe NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Member of the Fundamental Rights Platform (FRP) of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) Human Rights Council Forum on Minority Issues Thirteenth session (online) 19-20 November 2020 Agenda Item 2: Causes, scale and impact of hate speech targeting minorities in social media Name of the Organization: Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Main contact person(s): Mrs. Melek Kırmacı Arık and Mr. Deniz Servantie E-mail: info@abttf.org Thank you, Chair, My name is Deniz Servantie and I represent the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, an NGO representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace, Greece. We recall the Recommendation 1 from the European Regional Forum on “Hate Speech”, Social Media and Minorities1 which notes that States should effectively implement their obligations and responsibilities to protect the human rights of minorities and concerns about the situations of minorities in other states should not be regarded as a threat to state sovereignty. The status of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and the Greek community in İstanbul is established by the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923 and their rights were guaranteed by several bilateral and multilateral agreements. The Lausanne Peace Treaty (Articles 37-45) cover the rights of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, while Article 45 states that “the rights conferred by the provisions of the present Section on the non-Moslem minorities of Turkey will be similarly conferred by Greece on the Moslem minority in her territory”. Based on the 1923 Lausanne Treaty Greece claims that the Minority is Muslim and denies existence of an ethnic Turkish minority, although the Turkish community had been active with its associations bearing the word Turkish for about half a century without hindrance. The recognition of the Turkish community as a national - and not 1 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/MinorityIssues/Session13/Europe_Regional_Forum.pdf ABTTF Head Office • Wemerstr. 2, D-58454 Witten • Tel.: +49 (0) 2302 913291 • Fax: +49 (0) 2302 913293 ABTTF Brussels Office • Square de Meeûs 38/40, B-1000 Brussels • Tel.: +32 (0) 2 401 61 98 • Fax: +32 (0) 2 401 68 68 info@abttf.org • www.abttf.org