ABTTF participates in FUEN Minority Women Project’s
The Western Thrace Turkish Federation (ABTTF), a full member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), participated in the 3rd thematic meeting of the “Minority Women” project, held from December 1-3, 2025, in Budapest, Hungary.
The event was hosted by the Self-Government of Germans in Hungary (Landesselbstverwaltung der Ungarndeutschen – LdU) and brought together experts, activists, politicians, and minority representatives from across Europe to discuss “Equality in Political Participation and Minority Representation.” ABTTF’s Director of International Relations, Melek Kırmacı, attended the conference on behalf of the federation.
The meeting opened with a welcome speech by FUEN Secretary General Eva Edel Penzes, followed by a keynote presentation on the meeting’s theme by Prof. Dr. Tove Malloy, member of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM).
Under the moderation of Dr. Zora Popova, Coordinator of the FUEN Minority Women Project, participants spent two days exploring ways in which women from minority communities can achieve greater visibility, influence, and participation in public and political life.
During the panel session “Minority Women’s Participation and Representation – Barriers and Best Practices by Country,” ABTTF highlighted the ongoing challenges faced by the Turkish community in Western Thrace, Greece. The federation noted that the Greek state continues to deny the ethnic Turkish identity of its minority population. ABTTF recalled that a women’s cultural association founded in 2001 in the Rhodope region, which included “Turkish” in its name, was not officially registered by national courts. The association subsequently won its case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2008; however, Greece has failed to implement ECHR rulings, including those related to the Bekir-Usta and Others case, for over 17 years.
ABTTF further reported that a similar cultural association founded by Turkish women in Xanthi in 2010 also faced registration denial for the same reasons and that the ECHR, in June 2025, unanimously ruled that Greece had again violated the freedom of association.
The federation emphasized that systematic and structural discrimination against the Turkish community in Greece severely limits their political participation. Currently, there are no laws or policies supporting the political engagement of the Turkish minority. ABTTF also drew attention to the role of political and media rhetoric in fostering discrimination, citing that the leader of the DEB (FEP) Party, representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace, Çiğdem Asafoğlu, was openly targeted by Greek media after her party achieved first place in Rodopi and Xanthi during the 2019 and 2024 European Parliament elections.
To empower Turkish women in Western Thrace politically and socially, ABTTF recommended promoting the region’s economic development and encouraging women to take on leadership roles in civil society organizations and politics.
