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) UN Forum on Minority Issues 15th session on “Review. Rethink. Reform. 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Minority Rights” 1-2 December 2022 Geneva, Switzerland Name of the Organization: Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe(ABTTF) E-mail: info@abttf.org Agenda Item III: Rethink: Minority rights defenders and their role in promoting principles of the Declaration Dear Moderator, Dear participants of the Forum, As defined by the UN, “human rights defender” is a term used to describe people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner. This means that any person belonging to a specific minority group and a human rights defenders who advocates the rights of persons beloning to a specific minority group cannot be stigmatized, targeted or be subjected to any kind of hate speech for his/her statements or activities in order to defend the rights of this minority group. The Turkish minority in Western Thrace, Greece, has an estimated population of 150,000, does comprise 1.3% of the general population (2001 census) and it constitutes majority in Rhodope (52%) and almost half of the population in Xanthi (45%). Greece recognises only the existence of a ‘Muslim Minority in Thrace’ in the country as an autochthonous national minority group based on the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Under this treaty, the Turkish community has the right to establish, manage and control at their own expense, any charitable, religious and social institutions, any schools and other establishments for instruction and education, with the right to use their own language and to exercise their own religion freely therein. From the time the treaty was signed to the Junta of the Colonels in 1967, the community known as the Turkish Minority in the region and had bilingual signboards in our schools in both Turkish and Greek languages. Repressive and discriminatory policies towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace continued despite the end of the 1967 Junta of Colonels in 1974. Although associations which bear the word ‘Turkish’ in their titles operated without any obstacles for nearly half a century, in 1983, the three associations (Xanthi Turkish Union (est. 1927), Komotini Turkish Union (est.1928), Western Thrace Turkish Teachers Union (est. 1936)) which include the word ‘Turkish’ in their names were dissolved. Following the rejection by the local courts of the registration applications of the newly formed Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association (est.1995) and the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Rodopi Province (est. 2001), both associations applied to the ECtHR. In these three cases, now known as the Bekir Usta and Others group of cases, the ECtHR ruled in 2007 and 2008 that Greece violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the freedom of assembly and association. ABTTF Head Office • Wemerstr. 2, D-58454 Witten, Germany • Tel.: +49 (0) 2302 913291 • Fax: +49 (0) 2302 913293 ABTTF Brussels Office • Square de Meeûs 38/40, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium • Tel.: +32 (0) 2 401 61 98 • Mobile: +32 (0) 474 45 45 76 ABTTF Athens Office • 24 Lagoumitzi str., GR-17671 Athens, Greece • Tel.: +30 (0) 211 109 72 33 • Mobile: +30 (0) 694 467 36 61 info@abttf.org • www.abttf.org