- Press releases
The first annual meeting of the Working Group of the Turkic Minorities under the umbrella of FUEN took place from 20 until 23 November in Ankara, Turkey. FUEN President Hans Heinrich Hansen and FUEN Vice-President Halit Habip Oğlu honoured the meeting with their presence.
The event, which brought together ten presidents or other high-level representatives from the FUEN member organisations that represent the Turkic minority groups in Europe, began with visits to historical and cultural places in Ankara and was followed by a visit to Ambassador Ali Naci Koru, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. This first annual meeting is seen as a milestone for the Turkic minorities in Europe as they, for the first time, had the chance to come together and get aware of their problems/demands in the same platform.
The participating Turkic minority organisations were the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) from Germany; the Friendship, Equality and Peace Party (DEB) and the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association (BTAYTD) from Greece; the Rhodes, Kos and the Dodecanese Turks Culture and Solidarity Association from Turkey; the International Society of Meshketian Turks “VATAN” and the Social Organisation for Fostering and Development of the Karachay-Balkar Traditions “Bars El” from Russia; the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the Association of Crimean Karaites from Ukraine and the Association of Meskhetian Turks “VATAN” from Azerbaijan.
The Working Group of the Turkic Minorities forms the third subgroup under the umbrella of FUEN after the Working Groups of the German and Slavic Minorities that were established much earlier already. For the time being, the Working Group of the Turkic Minorities is planning to meet once a year and the venue for the next event in 2015 will be decided later.
