WTMUGA participated in the Western Balkans Communication Network Meeting organized
by FUEN in Skopje on March 6-7. WTMUGA was represented at the meeting by Human
Rights Experts Dr. Pervin Hayrullah and Kerem Abdurrahimoglou. The meeting began with
the opening speech of FUEN President and MEP Lorant Vince. In the first panel of the
meeting titled Current Situation of Minorities in the Western Balkans, expert speakers
provided information on legal frameworks and practices in the protection of minority rights in
the Western Balkans.
Following the panel presentations, Kerem Abdurrahimoglou took the floor on behalf of
WTMUGA and said that minority rights issues do not only cover Western Balkan countries,
and that the Turkish minority living in Greece, which has been an EU member for more than
40 years, is currently facing serious problems. He stated that there are national minority
councils within the normative framework in Western Balkan countries, but Greece does not
recognize the existence of any national minority in its own country. He underlined that the
ethnic identity of the Turkish minority living in Western Thrace is not recognized, and
accordingly, the ECHR’s decisions on Turkish associations have not been implemented for 17
years. He reminded that the Copenhagen Criteria are only required for EU candidate countries
in terms of minority rights, and emphasized the need to develop a holistic and effective
minority rights policy across Europe.
On the second day of the meeting, the second panel titled Combating Hate Speech discussed
the international legal framework in combating hate speech, local mechanisms in combating
Antigypsyism in the Western Balkans, and examples of hate speech. Again, the awareness
campaign called Silent Hate Speech launched by FUEN was introduced.
The panel was followed by a workshop where the roadmap and recommendations to be
followed in combating hate speech were presented.
The meeting continued with the 3rd Panel titled Education of Minorities and Education About
Minorities. In this section, the discrimination and problems experienced by many minority
groups in the field of education were discussed.
The meeting ended with a closing session where future steps were discussed and a general
evaluation of the event was made.
