Attempts to Turkify the Pomak minority in Thrace

Subject: Attempts to Turkify the Pomak minority in Thrace

The Pomak minority live in the Thrace region in northern Greece. Though Muslim by religion, the Pomaks are well versed in Greek culture and identify as Greek. Greece’s continued indifference and neglect, however, is pushing them – against their will – further under the influence of Turkey, which is actively striving to ‘Turkify’ all Muslim minorities in the region. What is more, in a violation of the Treaty of Lausanne, the Pomak language is not being taught in minority schools (although it is occasionally spoken in nurseries and primary schools), as Muslim groups are taught only Turkish. This ongoing situation is a testament to Greece’s indifference as regards the preservation of the Pomak people’s Greek identity. As a result, many Pomaks try to avoid sending their children to minority schools.

1. How is the Commission planning to protect the Pomak minority from Turkification, given that the Greek state is taking no action whatsoever?

2. What initiatives can be taken to help protect the Pomak language, which is being corroded away and its teaching prohibited?

3. Is it aware that illegal Turkish-speaking nurseries are operating in the region, which actively indoctrinate children to believe that they are Turkish citizens, in violation of international treaties?

Answer given by Mr Navracsics on behalf of the European Commission

(29 November 2019)

Respect for the rights of persons belonging to minorities is one of the founding values of the European Union. Moreover, respect for linguistic and cultural diversity is one of the objectives of the European Union enshrined in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union.

However, the Commission has no general power as regards minorities, in particular over issues relating to the recognition of the status of minorities, their self-determination and autonomy or the regime governing the use of regional or minority languages. In these cases Member States retain exclusive competence to regulate. The Commission has also no competence to oversee the operation of nurseries in Member States.

With regard to the promotion of regional and minority language, the European Union has the role of supporting and supplementing Member State action. In this respect, the Commission has adopted recently a proposal for a new Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning languages (1). This new initiative highlights the importance of valuing linguistic diversity in schools, including with reference to minority or migrant languages, and offers a comprehensive approach to improving language education in schools.

Projects promoting the usage and learning of smaller languages can benefit from Erasmus+ funding which allows to develop, transfer and implement innovative teaching and learning practices and to exchange experiences. Examples of such projects can be found on the Erasmus+ project results database (2).

⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/education/initiatives/european-education-area/improving-the-teaching-and-learning-of-languages_en

⋅2∙ https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/2018-1-EL01-KA101-047477