ABTTF President: “Former Minister of National Defence Frangos says that 99 primary schools operate in Western Thrace today, but he overlooks the closure of 132 primary schools in the last 27 years, contrary to our educational autonomy guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.’’
Our country Greece’s former Minister of National Defence and Former Chief of the Greek Army General Staff General Frangoulis Frangos delivered statements with respect to the Turkish community in Western Thrace in a programme he participated in on ERT 1 television.
Frangos indicated that 320 mosques and 99 minority primary schools were operating in (Western) Thrace in the programme, while there were 3 primary schools in Istanbul, 1 primary school in Gökçeada belonging to the Greek Orthodox minority, and no primary school in Bozcaada.
“Former Minister of National Defence Frangos says that 99 primary schools operate in Western Thrace today, but he overlooks the closure of 132 primary schools in the last 27 years, contrary to our educational autonomy guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Indeed, while we had a total of 231 primary schools in the 1994-1995 school year, today we only have 99 primary schools. While schools are being opened for only four pupils for the Greek Orthodox minority in Gökçeada in our motherland with whom we share the same fate, our country is closing down our primary schools which have autonomous status one by one on grounds of insufficient number of pupils. Our country, which has taken away our educational autonomy through various laws and practices, does not comply with the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne! On the other hand, Frangos refers to the minority in Istanbul, Gökçeada and Bozcaada as the Greek minority and us as the Muslim minority, despite the fact that only the term ‘‘non-Muslim minorities’’ is mentioned in the Treaty of Lausanne. In that case, Frangos needs to say that we who live in Western Thrace are also a Turkish minority’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
