Education year started with problems in the 1st Minority School in Xanthi

Problems of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority in the field of education still continue in the 2008-2009 education year. 24 students, who could not make their registration to the 1st Minority School in Xanthi between 1-20 June 2008 due to specific reasons applied for late registration between 1-7 September 2008, and the principal of the school approved the late registration of those students after the submission of the required documents. Parents, who paid the first instalment of the tuition fee, learned that the late registration of their children was not approved by the Supervisor of the Minority Schools. The justification made out was the exceeding number of pupils applied for the registration. The Supervisor of the Minority Schools, who visited the 1st Minority School in Xanthi, demanded the students to make registration to the 2nd School in Xanthi established by the Greek state.

On 12 September 2008, upon the decision of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board, the member of the Turkish minority started to raise a silent protest at the front of the 1st Minority School. Then, the principal of the school first accepted the said children; however the problem still remains unresolved. The meeting between the President of the School Board, Binnur Osmanoğlu and the MP of Xanthi, Çetin Mandacı and the President of Parents Association, Şennur Hasan and the responsible person for the private and minority schools under the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the Secretary for Intercultural Education Aggelos Sirigos has not yet bring any solution to the problem.

The reaction of the Minority continues

A similar case made out last year in the Minority High School in Xanthi makes the Western Thrace Turkish Minority perceptionize the event occurred in the 1st Minority School in Xanthi as an effort of the Greek state to direct the Minority children to the state schools rather than the minority schools. In view of that the registrations of the concerned children was cancelled because of the limitation of 25 student per classroom, the minority representatives expressed that since there were used to be three classrooms for the first grade in the 1st Minority School in Xanthi, the number of students who applied for registration did not exceed the limit.

The events occurred in the Xanthi 1st Minority School have prompted the reaction of the parents. The damnification of the children in the first day of the school causes the Minority to react to the Greek authorities. Expressing his views about the issue, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), said that “The problem occurred in the first day of the education year at the 1st Minority School in Xanthi cannot be accepted. The children’s right to education cannot be hindered in any circumstances. The lack of sufficient classroom or the exceeding number of students should not prevent the minority children’s right to education. If the problem had really been the excessive number of students who want to be registered to the school, this should have been enounced to the parents before the education year started. However, the call-off of the late registration of the students whose late registration was approved only a few days ago is considerably meaningful.” Reminding the autonomous status of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority with regard to education, Habipoğlu said, “Education is the most important ongoing problem of the Minority. Unfair and anti-democratic practices prevent the establishment of mutual trust between the Minority and the majority. A part of Greek media called the problem in the 1st Minority school in Xanthi as a “paltry reaction” of the Minority, which in turn deeply offends the loyal citizens of the country, our Minority”

Habipoğlu: Problems in education steals from the future of our children

Reminding an ongoing problem in the field of education, Habipoğlu stated that “The problem with the Greek teacher, Hara Nikopulu at the school in Büyük Derbent village, in Alexandropoulos last year still remains unresolved. Although the coordinator and inspector responsible for the minority school had promised that the teacher Nikopulu would have worked at another school after the petition of the guardians of the minority children, the teacher still works at the above mentioned school. And, the parents protest the situation, and they declare that they do not send their children to the school until the workplace of the concerned teacher is changed. However, the loser in that situation is, with no doubt, our children. Until the problems in the field of minority education are resolved, the future of our children is pledged. These children are the Greek citizens belonging to Turkish ethnicity. They are born and grow up in this country. Therefore, the Greek state is responsible for evolving and implementing a policy in line with this fact and reality.”