BATI TRAKYA AZINLIĞI YÜKSEK TAHSİLLİLER DERNEĞİ ΣΥΛΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΟΝΩΝ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑΣ ΔΥΤΙΚΗΣ ΘΡΑΚΗΣ WESTERN THRACE MINORITY UNIVERSITY GRADUATES ASSOCIATION UN Forum Fifteenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues 01 - 02 December 2022 ROOM XX, PALAIS DES NATIONS IN GENEVA REVIEW. RETHINK. REFORM. 30TH DECLARATION ON MINORITY RIGHTS ANNIVERSARY OF THE UN Reform: Filling the gaps in the implementation of the Declaration Thank you, Mr./Ms. Moderator, I am Kerem Aptourachim Oglou and I am representing Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association as a member of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in Greece. Dear participants, Minorities could only be protected to the extent that states accept and respect the international norms that guarantee their protection, like as the UN DM and Lausanne Treaty in the case of Western Thrace Turkish minority. I would say that the fundamental, religious, and educational rights of minorities are covered by both UN DM Articles 2 and 4 and Articles 38 to 40 of the Lausanne Treaty which is also based on values of League of Nations. However, today, While the Turkish minority in Western Thrace is deprived of the right to bilingual education in Turkish and Greek at the kindergarten level, minority students are directed to Greek public schools as a result of policies that reduce the quality of education in minority schools. Additionally, over the years, the autonomy and power of minority school boards have decreased, leading to financial inability and unworkable structural conditions in minority schools. On the other side, by referring to their religious leaders as pseudomouftis, the Turkish minority's religious values and honor are daily humiliated. Greece appoints Mouftis and passes laws on the Turkish minority's religious issues arbitrarily and against the minority's wishes. Dear participants, It can be said that all of the aforementioned problems are locked up on a recognition question. Recognition of human and minority rights, recognition of the identity and existence of the Turkish minority, recognition of universal values of the UN and civilized world. Also it is the question of recognition of international law by a country like Greece, which constantly and paradoxically refers to international law while it does not respect it. Today Greece denies existence of a Turkish minority in Western Thrace, denies existence of a minority at all in Rhodes and Kos Islands by depriving them even from religious rights and education in their mother tongue Turkish. As a result as Secretary General said “We are not dealing with gaps – we are dealing with outright inaction and negligence in the protection of minority rights. B.T.A.Y.T.D. Egnatias 75, 69100 Komotini, YUNANİSTAN Tel. & Fax: +30 25310 29705 Σ.Ε.Μ.Δ.Θ. Εγνατίας 75, 69100 Κομοτηνή, ΕΛΛΑΔΑ • E-mail: btaytd@otenet.gr W.T.M.U.G.A. Egnatias 75, 69100 Komotini, GREECE • Web: http://www.btaytd.com/