European political party slams Greece for new probe into Turkish minority association
Unjustified repression from Greek state against Muslim Turkish Minority has to end, says European Free Alliance
A European political party slammed Greece on Friday for a new probe launched into a Turkish minority association that organized a march for rights in July.
The march by the Xanthi Turkish Union (Iskece Turk Birligi-ITB), one of the oldest and most influential associations of Turkish minorities in Greece, had been attended by thousands of people and prominent figures who protested that Greece had not applied decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which favored the minority.
The European Free Alliance (EFA) reiterated on Twitter its support for the ITB leaders, who were summoned Wednesday by authorities.
“Unjustified repression from the Greek state against the Western Thrace Muslim Turkish Minority has to end,” the party said.
It highlighted that the march for rights intended to reclaim official recognition of the ITB and reiterated that the ECHR has recognized the legitimacy of ITB claims.
But the Greek government has not implemented the ECHR decision, it said.
“Greece should embrace diversity and recognize the Xanthi Turkish Union, as decided by the ECHR,” said EFA.
Decades-long struggle for rights
Under a 2008 ECHR ruling, the right of Turks in Western Thrace to use "Turkish" in the name of associations was guaranteed but Athens has failed to carry out the ruling, effectively banning the Turkish group’s identity.
Greece’s Western Thrace region is home to a Muslim Turkish community of around 150,000.
In 1983, the nameplate of the Xanthi Turkish Union (Iskece Turk Birligi) was taken down and the group was completely banned in 1986, on the pretext that “Turkish” was in its name.
To apply the ECHR decision, in 2017, parliament passed a law enabling banned associations to apply for re-registration, but the legislation included major exceptions that complicated applications.
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and ethnic minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region.
The alliance has generally limited its membership to progressive parties; therefore, only a fraction of European regionalist parties are members of the EFA.
Since 1999, the EFA and the European Green Party (EGP) have joined forces within Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group in the European Parliament, although some EFA members have joined other groups from time to time.
The EFA's youth wing is the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAY), founded in 2000.
As of 2021, four European regions are led by EFA politicians: Scotland with Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party, Flanders with Jan Jambon of the New Flemish Alliance, Corsica with Gilles Simeoni of For Corsica, and Catalonia with Pere Aragonès from the Republican Left of Catalonia.
