THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE

Abstract

I will consider the application of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne to the situation in which the Turkish Minority finds itself in Western Thrace in this article, and will refer also to other international legal provisions where appropriate, except the European Convention on Human Rights, which will be considered in a separate article. The Article 1 of the 1992 UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities provides that “States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their … territories and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.”