ABTTF President: “The fact that an education bureaucrat is going beyond education policies to offer assessments on foreign policy, the interpretation of the Treaty of Lausanne, and Türkiye-Greece relations clearly demonstrates that this is a political issue. As we have always said, the real purpose behind the closure of our primary schools is entirely different; the real aim is to dismantle the Turkish minority school system and, in the long term, to erode and eliminate the presence of the Turkish minority in the region—just as happened in Rhodes and Kos...”
It has emerged that the registrations of certain students enrolled at the Xanthi Central Turkish Minority Primary School were cancelled shortly before the start of the school year, following a decision published in the Government Gazette of Greece on 13 July 2026, to suspend the operations of eight Turkish primary schools belonging to the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace starting from the 2026-2027 school year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our motherland, the Republic of Türkiye, also indicated in a press release that the closure decisions and enrollment revocations violated the minority education rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne.
Following public outcry, Deputy Director of Education of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Marigula Kosmidou issued a written statement on 21 July 2026. Kosmidu argued that the closure of eight Turkish primary schools was not a measure specifically targeting minority schools, noting that 39 public schools in the region had also ceased operations during the same period and claiming that the primary reason for this was the demographic decline occurring across Europe.
Kosmidu claimed that Greece has fully fulfilled its obligations under the Treaty of Lausanne and directly responded to statements made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye. While asserting that Türkiye has no legal or factual legitimacy to express an opinion on minority schools in Greece, Kosmidu characterised the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace not as an ethnic minority but as a “religious minority,” and, using the term “Muslim minority,” compared the education of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace to that of the “Greek minority” in Türkiye.
“The fact that a deputy director of education—rather than the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs—responded to the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye is a first, and we must examine this carefully. The fact that an education bureaucrat is going beyond education policies to offer assessments on foreign policy, the interpretation of the Treaty of Lausanne, and Türkiye-Greece relations clearly demonstrates that this is a political issue. According to the Treaty of Lausanne, just as the minority in Western Thrace is Muslim, the minority in Türkiye is neither Greek, but solely a non-Muslim minority. As we have always said, the real purpose behind the closure of our primary schools is entirely different; the real aim is to dismantle the Turkish minority school system and, in the long term, to erode and eliminate the presence of the Turkish minority in the region—just as happened in Rhodes and Kos... When the islands were transferred from Italy to Greece in 1947, there were Turkish schools on the islands, and these schools continued to operate until 1974. After the schools were closed by the state in 1974, Greece began referring to the Turks on the islands as “Greek Muslims.” This is precisely the scenario they are trying to create in our region as well’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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