Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association Egnatias 75, 69100 Komotini-Greece Tel/Fax: +302531029765 E-mail: btaytd@otenet.gr URL: www.btaytd.com Generally speaking, the Turkish minority in Greece is not adequately represented in the political and public life of Greece. Despite the existence of two minority MPs in the Greek Parliament and more than 250 minority people in local administrations, there are some structural limitations on the political representation of minority. After the election of the first independent minority MP to the Greek Parliament in late 1980s, the Greek electoral law was changed on 24 October 1990 and an electoral threshold of 3% was introdued for the first time. Since the threshold was also implemented for the independent candidates, the minority has lost the chance of being represented in the parliament through its own party and/or with an independent MP (3% of the total population of Greece means nearly 300.000 votes, whereas the total population of the minority is estimated about 150.000). That is why minority is represented with the MPs elected through majority political parties in the parliament, which in turn, ften proves to be a hindrance to express their thoughts and feelings freely regarding minority affairs. As far as the local elections are concerned, the Law no 2218/1994 arbitrarily merged the electoral districts populated by the minority with that of the majority in order to prevent the possibility of the election of governors with minority background in the provinces of Xanthi and Rodopi. In this respect, Rodopi prefecture was merged with neighboring Evros, whereas the Xanthi was merged with the Drama and Kavala Prefectures. In order to hide the discriminatory nature of this artificial implication, this notorious system of "enlarged electoral districts" was implemented in the Attica region as well. Furthermore, the Greek government applied policies aimed to change demographic structure of the region by transferring population from the ex-Soviet Union countries. Such an implementation of demographic change increases the overall number of Christian Greek Population in Western Thrace and facilitates the election of more Christian Greeks for the local administration. The government introduced a quota measure (%0.5) for the recruitment of minority people in the public sector with the Law No: 3647/2008. The Turkish minority requests the implementation of the quota for public sector positions in the Western Thrace region, which is the natural habitat of the minority. So far, the quota measure has been used for the positions outside the region. Bearing in mind the population rates in the region, the disadvantageous status of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace, We call upon the Greek State: To take special measures for the effective and adequate participation and representation of the Turkish minority women to political life in Greece. To introduce at least 50% special quota for the minority women in local administrations. To withdraw the 3% electoral threshold for independent candidates so that independent MPs can be elected. To protect and promote full and effective participation of the Minority in political decisions on the national and regional level concerning the region in which the Minority lives, and to create a consultative mechanism, at national, regional and local levels which would ensure an institutionalized, open, sincere and continuous dialogue with representatives of the Turkish Minority. To take all necessary steps in line with the international standards in order to ensure the effective participation of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace to the political life in Greece. 2