Greece is not moving an inch. For many years, even decades, judgements by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that upheld complaints by the Turkish minority in Western Thrace (north-eastern Greece) have been ignored.

Thanks to the control mechanisms of the Council of Europe, however, these events are not being forgotten. At the beginning of December, the Committee of Ministers revisited numerous outstanding cases and reaffirmed that these judgements must be implemented. In June 2025, the Committee of Ministers intends to review whether progress has been made.

The case concerning the Turkish minority is a violation of freedom of association. The Bekir-Ousta case concerns the banning and dissolution of associations in Western Thrace that had the word ‘Turkish’ in their names. The ban was imposed in 1969 under the Greek military dictatorship, but is still in force today. In 2005, for example, it affected the Turkish Union of Xanthi, which was founded in 1927 and had never previously been criticised for its name, as well as the cultural association of Turkish women in the prefecture of Rodopi and the youth association of the Turkish minority in the prefecture of Evros.

The minority took legal action through all instances of the Greek courts, but was unsuccessful without exception. They then appealed to the Court of Human Rights, which upheld their case. But it was no use: to this day, the status of these associations has not been restored. ‘As we can see from the judgements of the Greek Court of Cassation, Greece has no intention of implementing the judgements in this group of cases in any way and is constantly playing for time,’ says Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).

Greece adheres to the definition of its minority as a religious, not an ethnic community, which dates back to the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. This violates the right of the Turkish minority to live out its identity and at the same time excludes other groups of the Muslim minority, such as Roma and Pomaks, from being recognised as a separate ethnic group. The word ‘Turkish’ is still banned today.

Greece violates all the provisions of the Lausanne Treaty on the self-administration of the Turkish minority in schools, religion and social institutions, as well as the right to use the language. There are no bilingual kindergartens in Western Thrace, only state kindergartens in Greek. However, without attending a kindergarten, children are refused enrolment in primary school.

The government is trying to bring the religious institutions and the appointment of Muslim preachers and dignitaries under state control with its own laws. As stipulated in a bilateral treaty, Muslims have always elected their own religious leaders (muftis) at the level of the former provinces. However, a few years ago, the state began to issue new rules and appoint muftis itself - without consulting the Muslims. The elected muftis were hit with lawsuits and sentenced to prison and fines up to the highest instance. However, all of these judgements were overturned by the European Court of Human Rights without any reaction from Greece.

The Muslim minority dates back to the former Ottoman Empire. It consists of around 54,000 Turks, around 35,000 Pomaks (a community that speaks a South Slavic language close to Bulgarian) and around 20,000 Muslim Roma. After 1918, the Ottoman Empire was left with only a bridgehead on European territory in Edirne. The Turks in Western Thrace, the Greeks in Istanbul and on two islands off the Turkish capital were excluded from the population exchange that was sealed in the Lausanne Treaties of 1923. These treaties, which were signed 101 years ago, only mention a Muslim minority.

Western Thrace is one of nine geographical regions in Greece. The region has always been economically weak and is one of the poorest and most backward in Greece. 80 per cent of Turks live from agriculture. 75 per cent of the economy is in the hands of Greeks.