ABTTF President: “We call on the Greek authorities to stop ignoring the requests of the board of the Xanthi Minority Secondary and High School and to immediately take the necessary steps for a new building which would be of sufficient capacity for the number of pupils of the school.”
The issue of insufficient building and classrooms at the Xanthi Minority Secondary and High School which belongs to the Turkish community in Western Thrace, Greece persists.
In a written statement made by the Board of the Xanthi Minority Secondary and High School, it was indicated the issue of insufficient building capacity of the school is continuing and requests for prefabricated classrooms have not been addressed yet by the authorities. It was noted in the statement promises to end the boycott launched by the pupils of the school last year were not fulfilled and prefabricated classrooms placed in almost every school were not placed in their own school. “The aim is to ensure that as few pupils belonging to the minority as possible prefer our school. For this reason, the authorities are turning a deaf ear to all our appeals”, stated the School Board.
Last year, on 12 September, the pupils and their parents staged a boycott at the school for the solution of the problem, and on 23 September, a large protest march was held by the pupils’ parents from the school to the city square and from there to the governor’s office.
“The building shortage and classroom issue at the Xanthi Minority Secondary and High School has been persisting unfortunately for years and our pupils are suffering from it. In a speech he delivered at our school at the occasion of a visit he made to Western Thrace in 2016, our country’s former prime minister Alexis Tsipras had promised that the building issue would be solved and shift teaching at the school would end in 2017. Three years have passed, the government has changed but our school still has not acquired its new building. Although there are only days left to the new school year to start, the request of the school board has not been replied yet. We call on the Greek authorities to immediately take the necessary steps for a new building which would be of sufficient capacity to meet the number of pupils of the school and to fulfil its responsibilities”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
