Aleksia Kotam

Amnesty International released the annual international report covering 150 countries on human rights. It is stated that “the cynical use of ‘us vs them’ narratives of blame, hate and fear" creates a more divided and dangerous world. For Turkey, 2016 was a year in which violations of human rights have increased with the state of emergency.

It is revealed that Greece imposes different visa requirements to Greek Orthodox community in Hatay and Istanbul.

Amnesty International released a report assessing the global refugee crisis. Titled as “Tackling the Global Refugee Crisis from Shirking to Sharing”, the report summarizes the severity of the global refugee crisis. The report includes situation analyses of different regions and points out developed countries' failure in sharing responsibility. Amnesty International also provides some proposals for resolving this crisis.

The number of people migrating to Istanbul from Greece increases day by day. It is estimated that around 800 Greek immigrants live in Istanbul. There is a platform called “Hava Baba”, which is founded by those immigrants. We spoke to Marina Drymalitou, the chair of Association for the Support of Greek Community Foundations in Turkey (RUMVADER) about the problems with Greek immigrants and their expectations.

Population of Greeks in Turkey decreased to 2500 and the lowest number of graduates in recent years has seen in Greek community's schools. 19 students are graduated from 3 schools; while this causes concerns, RUMVADER chair Andonis Parizyanos, Zoğrafyan High School Principal Yannis Demircioğlu and the former representative of Minority Foundations Laki Vingas stated that positive discrimination is needed.