EFA calls attention to the importance of including minorities in political representation
The European Free Alliance, together with our member party DEB Partisi, raised our voice in the European Parliament for the rights of national minorities. The parties organized a joint event that highlighted the need to ensure proper political representation for national minorities, and called on the EU to step up to protect minority rights and prevent EU states from abusing minority groups.
DEB Partisi is the party that represents the Turkish minority in Western Thrace, Greece, a minority group that faces strong discrimination. While Turks in Greece are 1.2% of the population, their political party is blocked by a nationwide 3% threshold. They are victims of national rules made to deny representation to national minorities. They are one of many examples of minorities in the EU that cannot be properly represented in their national parliament, so their needs are not heard, and no legislative measures are taken on their behalf. “EFA seems to be the only party in the EU that believes that no one should be left behind in political representation”, said DEB Partisi leader, Tsigdem Asafoglou.
Regions that are home to national minorities are also highly likely to be marginalized, with poor investment in education and healthcare. According to the expert of the European Centre for Minority Issues, Dr. Kyriaki Topidi, “participation rights are not restricted to politics”. The odds of minorities succeeding in a political process are very limited, since they face not only political, but also socio-economic barriers to representation. Therefore, they cannot politically address the discrimination that they suffer. “When minorities are not represented, they feel a lack of ownership of the state”, continued Dr. Topidi. “They sense the state to be something owned by the majority” and not by all citizens. Therefore, “it is in the interest of the state to include the minorities to avoid the consequences of exclusion”, finished the ECMI researcher.
Greek MEPs’ outburst
Four Greek MEPs from right to far-right parties took the floor. Their intervention, in which they denied the minority’s identity and endorsed its exclusion from political life, ended up providing a striking live illustration of the discrimination under discussion, culminating in the MEPs in question storming out of the conference room rather than engaging in dialogue.
To solve the minority situation, the speakers agreed: it is necessary that the EU stops treating minority rights as an internal issue of the member states and takes responsibility itself. “Violations of minority rights should affect European funds”, said Aleksejs Dimitrovs, legal advisor in the European Parliament.. “The EU should adopt minority protection as a core EU challenge. Monitoring mechanisms and sanctions are needed.”, agreed DEB Partisi EFA Vice-President, Kerem Aptourachim Oglou. Without these, the EU will fail to uphold its own values of democracy, equality, and unity in diversity.
As Mr. Aptourachim Oglou explained, the European Free Alliance views the situation of the Turkish minority in Greece as one of the clearest examples of marginalisation of minorities within the EU. Like the Hungarians in Romania and the Macedonians in Bulgaria, the Turkish community in Greece faces oppression, surveillance and threats simply for seeking to exercise their right to democratic participation and to celebrate their culture without fear of reprisals. Once again, EFA urges the EU, through its institutions, to solve this urgent matter.
