Habip Oğlu met with the YTB Vice President Sayit Yusuf

Vice President Halit Habip Oğlu of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) visited Sayit Yusuf, the Vice President of Y.T.B., the Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (Y.T.B) in his office in Ankara on February 10, 2017. Habip Oğlu congratulated Yusuf on his new appointment as the Y.T.B Vice President and wished him success and great achievements in his future work.

Problems and demands of Turkish minorities and communities are raised in international platforms through FUEN TAG

During the meeting with the YTB Vice-President Yusuf, Habip Oğlu informed him about FUEN and its activities and told that he has been elected in 2013 as the Vice President of FUEN, the largest umbrella organization of autochthonous, national minorities in Europe, based in Germany. Habip Oğlu told that the Working Group of Turkic Minorities and Communities (TAG) was established in 2013, as the third working group in addition to existing working groups of German and Slavic minorities within FUEN. Habip Oğlu informed Mr Yusuf about the member organisations of Turkish minorities and communities represented within FUEN TAG and added that the first annual meeting of FUEN TAG was held in Ankara in November 2014, the second in Baku in November 2015 and third in Berlin in November 2016, the latter with the logistical support of the Working Group of German Minorities.

Habip Oğlu noted that FUEN TAG carries out activities for minority groups with urgent problems like the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, the Turkish community in Rhodes and Kos, the Meskhetian (Ahıska) Turks and the Crimean Tatars at the European Union, the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations (UN).

Habip Oğlu further told Mr Yusuf that FUEN submitted to the European Commission a European Citizens Initiative entitled ‘Minority SafePack Initiative – one million signatures for diversity in Europe’ that aims at establishing a European protection mechanism for protecting and guaranteeing the rights of minorities in Europe. He added that the European Commission refused to register that proposal on the grounds that it manifestly fell outside its powers in September 2013. Habip Oğlu explained that after FUEN appealed to the European Court of Justice, the Court ruled that the Commission's decision on the rejection of the registration of the initiative was unlawful.

Habip Oğlu noted that the annual FUEN Congress 2017 will take place in the city of Cluj-Napoca, hosted by the Hungarian minority in Romania, and he invited Mr Yusuf and the Y.T.B to the FUEN Congress. As the Vice-President responsible for related communities within Y.T.B., Mr Yusuf expressed his gratitude for having this meeting with Habip Oğlu.