UN stakeholder report highlights concerns raised over Western Thrace Turkish minority
A United Nations stakeholder report prepared ahead of Greece’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) includes extensive submissions concerning the rights and concerns of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, including issues related to identity, association, education, religious autonomy and hate speech.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published a summary of information submitted by civil society organizations and other stakeholders for Greece’s upcoming UPR. Greece is scheduled to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group’s 53rd session in October-November 2026.
Among the submissions reflected in the stakeholder summary are contributions from the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) and the European Language Equality Network (ELEN), of which ABTTF became a member in 2025.
ABTTF submissions included in UN report
ABTTF submitted its contribution to the UN in March 2026, outlining what it described as key problems facing the Western Thrace Turkish Minority and recommendations for addressing them.
The OHCHR stakeholder report refers directly to ABTTF’s views and recommendations under the section on Indigenous Peoples and Minorities.
According to the submission summarized in the report, ABTTF argues that Greece’s reference to the “Muslim minority” established under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne has been used to reject the Turkish identity of the minority in Western Thrace. It also raises concerns over what it describes as hate speech targeting the Turkish community in political discourse and the media.
ABTTF recommends that Greece recognize the Turkish identity of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, safeguard freedom of association and fully and without delay implement relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The report also reflects ABTTF’s concerns regarding education. Its submission argues that the temporary suspension and subsequent permanent closure of Turkish minority primary schools has become a systematic form of discrimination. ABTTF calls for the restoration of educational autonomy, the return of decision-making concerning Turkish minority schools to the community in accordance with their autonomous status, and full respect for educational rights, including mother-tongue education.
On religious autonomy, ABTTF calls for an end to state intervention in the religious affairs of the minority, recognition of elected muftis, repeal of Law 4964/2022 and arrangements allowing the minority itself to determine the operation of its muftiates.
ELEN raises identity and Turkish-language education
The stakeholder report also includes recommendations submitted by ELEN, which visited Western Thrace in May 2025 with the organization of ABTTF.
In its contribution to Greece’s fourth UPR cycle, ELEN called on Greece to recognize the ethnic Turkish identity of the minority in Western Thrace, fully respect its educational rights, guarantee access to Turkish-language and quality education, and allow the Turkish minority to establish and manage its own schools.
ELEN also raised concerns over what it described as the progressive restriction of the powers of school boards in Turkish minority schools by Greek authorities.
The network further recommended that Greece fully investigate and prohibit defamation, stigmatization and hate speech targeting people belonging to national and linguistic minorities.
ELEN also called on Greece to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, as well as Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the general prohibition of discrimination.
The stakeholder report also contains recommendations concerning the Western Thrace Turkish Minority submitted by the World Lawyers Association (WOLAS), an Istanbul-based organization that contributed individually to Greece’s UPR process.
Greece set for fourth UPR review
The UPR is a UN Human Rights Council mechanism through which the human rights record of each UN member state is reviewed by its peers. OHCHR provides expertise and support to the process.
Greece has previously undergone three UPR cycles, most recently in November 2021. It received 239 recommendations during that review and supported 216 of them when the outcome was adopted in March 2022.
ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu said the inclusion of issues concerning Turkish identity, freedom of association, education, religious autonomy and hate speech in the stakeholder report was significant ahead of Greece’s upcoming review.
He said the direct reflection of ABTTF’s submission in the UN report represented a result of the organization’s international advocacy efforts and added that it would continue to raise the concerns of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority during the review process.
