[alst-l] Latest from Human Rights Watch

[Agron Alibali]

                 Turkish Minority Rights Violated in Greece

 (JANUARY 8, 1999) -- Ethnic Turks in Greece face continued serious
discrimination in the enjoyment of language, religious, and educational
rights, according to a report released today by  Human Rights Watch. The
report, which updates 1990 and 1992 studies, notes significant progress
in recent years but calls for continued improvements in the rights
enjoyed by approximately 100,000 ethnic Turks in Greece.

 Greece has enacted a number of discriminatory measures to
force ethnic Turks to migrate to Turkey or to disrupt
community life and weaken its cultural basis. The most
 egregious example was Article 19 of the Citizenship Law,
 which, until it was abolished in 1998, allowed the state to strip
 approximately 60,000 non-ethnic Greeks of their citizenship
 between 1955 and 1998. Human Rights Watch welcomed
 abolition of the law last year, but noted that it did not apply
 retroactively, so tens of thousands of ethnic Turks remain
 wrongfully deprived of their Greek citizenship.

 A 1990 law granted the state wide-ranging powers in appointing the
mufti, the Turkish  community's religious leader who also serves as an
Islamic judge in civil matters. In defiance of the law, the Turkish
community has continued to elect its religious leaders, who have been
prosecuted and imprisoned by Greek authorities. In addition, the repair
of mosques is sometimes blocked by state authorities, and those involved
in the repair are prosecuted.

 Human rights violations in the education field affect the largest number
of individuals and have done  the most to foster economic
underdevelopment among the Turkish minority. Turkish children attend
schools that are overcrowded and poorly funded compared to those attended
by ethnic Greeks. And the two Turkish-language high schools in Western
Thrace can provide only a fraction of the needed places, resulting in a
disproportionate drop-out rate.

 In addition, Human Rights Watch has received credible complaints from
members of the ethnic Turkish minority, alleging police surveillance,
discrimination in public employment, and restrictions on freedom of
expression. Representatives of Human Rights Watch and the Greek Helsinki
Monitor were trailed by police operatives in Thrace whileconducting
research for the report.
 

or Further Information:
 Holly Cartner in New York, 1-212-216-1277

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