Wednesday’s Greek court ruling denying an application by the Xanthi Turkish Union to reregister came in response to an ECHR ruling from over a decade ago that Greece has never carried out.
Under the 2008 ECHR ruling, the right of Turks in Western Thrace to use the word "Turkish" in the name of associations was guaranteed, but Athens has failed to carry out the ruling, effectively banning the Turkish group 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 the word “Turkish” was in its name.
To apply the ECHR decision, in 2017 the Greek parliament passed a law enabling the banned associations to apply for re-registration, but the legislation included major exceptions that complicated the applications.
Turks of Western Thrace have long decried Greek violations of their rights, from closing down mosques and shutting down schools to not letting Muslim Turks elect their own religious leaders.
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