Council of Europe calls for protection for Greeks on Imbros, Tenedos

The Council of Europe is calling on Turkey, according to an announcement issued on Tuesday, to take measures to protect the Greek minority on the islands of Imbros and Tenedos.

The Council of Europe's Justice and Human Rights Committee issued a resolution on Tuesday which calls on Turkey to adopt a "positive stance" towards the Greeks of Imbros and Tenedos.

The committee hails certain "positive gestures" that have taken place, but appeals for "a fairer settlement of educational and ownership issues for the two islands' inhabitants of Greek origin." It also calls for the remedying of damage caused to the natural and cultural heritage of Imbros and Tenedos.

The Council of Europe's resolution will be brought before the Plenum for a vote on June 27.

Source

Περισσότερα για την επίσκεψη του PACE στα νησιά της Ιμβρου και της Τενέδου

Fact-finding visit by a PACE rapporteur to the Gökçeada/Imbros and Bozcaada/Tenedos islands

Strasbourg, 25.04.2008 - For the purposes of preparing his report on the Gökçeada/Imbros and Bozcaada/Tenedos islands, Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will make a fact-finding visit from 27 April to 2 May to the two Turkish islands, where he will meet inhabitants and local authorities. He will then stop over in Ankara for talks with representatives of the Ministries of the Interior, Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs. Mr Gross considers that, since the 1960s, many islanders of Greek origin – as a result of policies carried out at the time – have left the islands, whose population was exclusively (in the case of Gökçeada/Imbros) or mainly (in the case of Bozcaada/Tenedos) Greek under the Ottomans. A new policy dating from 1993 allows exiles to return to visit the island from which they come, but problems seem to persist. The objective of the Rapporteur, whose assignment is the result of a joint initiative on the part of the Turkish and Greek delegations to PACE, is to seek an equitable solution so that these two islands can provide a positive example of Greco-Turkish co-operation that will be mutually beneficial. Programme of the visit source

θα επανέλθουμε στο φλέγον αυτό εθνικό ζήτημα με περισσότερες πληροφορίες για το παρελθόν αλλά και το παρόν των Ελληνικών κοινοτήτων Ίμβρου&Τενέδου