Turkish community in Western Thrace demands bilingual minority kindergartens

Halit Habip Oğlu: “We call on our country Greece to act no longer according to political calculations, but rather to establish a permanent structure which will ensure the smooth transition of the children belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace from kindergartens to bilingual primary and secondary education within the autonomous minority education system.’’

The Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace (BTTADK), the highest representative authority of the Western Thrace Turks living in Greece, notes in its written statement that within the framework of the educational autonomy granted with the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, the Greek government should respond at the soonest to the demand of the Turkish community in Western Thrace to have bilingual minority kindergartens opened in the region where the medium of instruction is both the Turkish and Greek languages.

In the statement by BTTADK, it is stated that in 2017, it became compulsory for all children in Greece to attend kindergartens, without making any special arrangement for the children belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace whose mother tongue is Turkish, and the Turkish children are therefore enforced to attend public kindergartens where it is instructed only in the Greek language. It is also indicated in the statement that the current practice hinders the Turkish children to interact in their mother tongue Turkish in the beginning of their educational life.

“We as ABTTF representing the Western Thrace Turks living in Europe, fully support the demand of the Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace for opening of bilingual minority kindergartens in the region of Western Thrace. The Greek government ignores our demand for bilingual kindergartens and enforces the children belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace to attend public kindergartens where the medium of instruction is only the Greek language. We call on our country Greece to act no longer according to political calculations, but rather to establish a permanent structure which will ensure the smooth transition of the children belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace from kindergartens to bilingual primary and secondary education within the autonomous minority education system”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).