ABTTF President: ‘Friday is a day of mass worship and is a sacred day to Muslims. We call on the Greek authorities to respect the religiously sacred days of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and to immediately revoke the circular, which lacks good faith’.
The circular dated 17.09.2021, signed by Konstantinos Bandikos, Director of Education in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, sent to Western Thrace Turkish minority schools in the Rodopi and Evros provinces, ends the practice of clock out early on Fridays, which have been applied in Turkish schools for years. According to the circular, teachers and students who want to go to the Friday prayers are required to petition and special leave every week.
‘It is not possible to say that the circular dated 17.09.2021 sent by the Directorate for Education of the Region of Eastern Macedonian and Thrace to schools belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace is well-intentioned. Friday is a day of mass worship and considered as sacred to Muslims. However, with this circular, the practice of clock out early on Fridays, which has been going smoothly for years in Turkish schools, is stopped and teachers and students from the Turkish community in Western Thrace are restricted from performing their religious obligations without interruption. We call on the Greek authorities to respect the religiously sacred days of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and to immediately revoke the circular, which lacks good faith’ said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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