ABTTF President: “The Consul General of our motherland Türkiye in Komotini, a signatory to the Treaty of Lausanne, visited Turkish primary schools in his jurisdiction, having obtained the necessary legal authorisations in accordance with the principle of reciprocity, and listened to their problems on the spot. Similarly, in the recent past, former education ministers and diplomatic representatives of our country have visited Greek Orthodox minority schools in Istanbul and Gökçeada and listened to their problems.”
Greek Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sport Sofia Zacharaki responded to a parliamentary question submitted by Member of Parliament for the Greek Solution Party Konstantinos Hitas, regarding the visit by Consul General of the Republic of Türkiye in Komotini Aykut Ünal to the Turkish schools in Western Thrace.
In her response, Zacharaki indicated that visits to schools by all third parties, including representatives of foreign countries, are a common occurrence and are carried out with the permission of the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sport. He noted that the Consul General of Republic of Türkiye in Komotini Aykut Ünal also followed the same legal procedures stipulated by the Ministry and obtained the necessary permits to visit minority schools.
In his parliamentary question, Hitas, a member of the Greek Solution Party, claimed that the visits of Consul General of the Republic of Türkiye in Komotini Aykut Ünal to minority schools in (Western) Thrace were unrelated to education, took place during school hours, and violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
“Our country Greece’s Minister of Education Zacharaki responded appropriately to the provocative question posed by a member of the far-right Greek Solution Party, refusing to allow the issue to be used as internal political fodder. The Consul General of our motherland Türkiye in Komotini, a signatory to the Treaty of Lausanne, visited Turkish primary schools in his jurisdiction, having obtained the necessary legal authorisations in accordance with the principle of reciprocity, and listened to their problems on the spot. Similarly, in the recent past, former education ministers and diplomatic representatives of our country have visited Greek Orthodox minority schools in Istanbul and Gökçeada and listened to their problems. As a result of the state’s unilateral interventions in the educational autonomy of our community, guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne, the quality of education in Turkish schools in Western Thrace has declined in recent years. It would be desirable for our schools to be brought to the agenda of the Greek Parliament through parliamentary questions addressing the measures the state will take to improve the quality of education in these areas and restore it to its former level, rather than through provocative parliamentary questions from far-right politicians’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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