The European Western Thrace Turks Federation (ABTTF) issued a statement on the annual report of Greece’s National Commission for Human Rights. The statement said the report highlighted the continuation of structural problems that negatively affected the rule of law in Greece throughout 2025.
ABTTF said the assessments in the report overlapped with issues also reflected in the European Commission’s reports. The shrinking civic space, delays in implementing rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and Greek national courts, and structural shortcomings in the judicial system were listed among the main issues.
Oversight of European court rulings continues
The statement said Greece remained under intense scrutiny by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers because it had failed to implement European Court of Human Rights rulings concerning detention conditions, asylum procedures, and freedom of assembly and association.
ABTTF argued that the report clearly demonstrated that the rule of law had been undermined in Greece. It identified the “Bekir Usta and Others” group of cases concerning the freedom of association of Western Thrace Turks as the clearest example of these problems.
According to the statement, Greece has failed to implement European Court of Human Rights rulings concerning the freedom of association of Western Thrace Turks for more than 18 years.
Three associations were closed in the 1980s
The Turkish Union of Xanthi was founded in 1927, the Komotini Turkish Youth Union in 1928, and the Western Thrace Turkish Teachers’ Union in 1936. The three associations were closed in the 1980s because their names included the word “Turkish.”
The measure was justified on the grounds that the minority in Western Thrace was defined as “Muslim,” not “Turkish,” under the Treaty of Lausanne. Greek authorities also rejected the use of the term “Turkish,” which had previously appeared on the signs and report cards of minority schools, and thereafter refused to grant official registration to associations whose names included the word “Turkish.”
Cases brought before the European court in 2005
After the applications to establish the Minority Youth Association in the Evros regional unit and the Turkish Women’s Cultural Association in the Rhodope regional unit were rejected, those associations and the closed Turkish Union of Xanthi applied to the European Court of Human Rights in 2005.
In rulings issued in 2007 and 2008, the court held that Greece had violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of assembly and association.
Greek courts later introduced a legislative amendment aimed at implementing the European Court of Human Rights rulings. However, following objections from opposition parties, a provision allowing the amendment not to be applied when the ruling concerned “national security” was added, and the Greek Parliament adopted the amendment in 2017.
