FUEN organised a conference on the Women of Minorities in Athens
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) participated in a Conference on Minority Women organised by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) in Athens on 30 October-1 November 2024.
ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı attended the conference titled ‘‘Approaches to Addressing Intersectional and Multiple Forms of Inequality’’ hosted by FUEN member Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans (Ec.Fe.Con) as a speaker.
The event, which started with the opening speeches of FUEN Vice-President Olivia Schubert and President of Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans Nikolaos Uzunoglu, brought together approximately thirty people, mostly women, belonging to national minorities in Europe. Moderated by FUEN Coordinator for the Minority Women Dr. Project Zora Popova, the participants spent two days discussing different forms of inequality faced by women, the role of the state and institutions in combating inequality, the challenges faced by women in leadership roles and best practices in Europe.
In the panel on the role of the state and institutions, ABTTF International Relations Director Melek Kırmacı, Ec.Fe.Con. President Nikolaos Uzunoglu and Ec.Fe.Con. representatives Georgia Amilia Voulgari and İlay Örs discussed the role of the state in minority policy towards the Turkish community in Western Thrace in Greece and the Greek Orthodox community in Türkiye.
In her presentation in this session, Melek Kırmacı underlined the importance of civil society as a factor that has an important role in the social and cultural development of women belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace and noted that the freedom of association should be guaranteed within this framework. ABTTF explained that the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi was established in 2001 and its application to the court was rejected due to the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name and reminded the process of its application to the ECtHR. ABTTF underlined that in the separate applications made to the ECtHR by the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi together with the Xanthi Turkish Union and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association, the court ruled that Greece had violated the freedom of association and said that Greece had not executed the judgments for more than 16 years in the three cases known today as the Bekir-Ousta group of cases.
ABTTF stated that similar issues will continue as long as the ECtHR judgments in the Bekir-Ousta group of cases are not executed and that the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Xanthi, which was established following the ECtHR judgments, was not registered due to the word ‘‘Turkish’’ in its name. It added that this situation is actually a result of the systematic discrimination of the state against the Turkish community in Western Thrace.
Secondly, ABTTF indicated that as a result of the conscious policies of the state, Western Thrace is underdeveloped, unemployment rates are high in the region due to the limited employment opportunities, men belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace migrate abroad for seasonal jobs and women experience second social issues related to the economy by increasing their burden on the family.
Thirdly, ABTTF added that hate speech against the Turkish community has become widespread due to labelling and targeting against the Turkish community in Western Thrace and that this situation has increased the isolation of Turkish women in the region.
ABTTF explained that the prevention of freedom of association and the general prejudices and stereotypes against the Turkish community create barriers for the participation of Turkish women in social, economic, cultural and public life.
