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Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias visited Gökçeada on Easter

18.04.2023

ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu: “While 60 children are studying in the kindergarten and primary school, which was opened with only 5 children in Gökçeada with the support of our motherland, the number of our schools in Western Thrace decreased from 226 to 99 in the last ten years. As two communities whose status and rights were determined by the Treaty of Lausanne, this school in Gökçeada also has a kindergarten. However, although kindergarten education is obligatory in our country, our country does not allow us to open bilingual kindergarten classes in these schools, unfortunately all our requests on this subject are left unanswered.” 

On the occasion of the Orthodox Church’s Easter, our country Greece’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias visited Gökçeada, where the Greek minority of Istanbul lives, and attended the Easter mass on the island.

Dendias was welcomed by the Metropolitan of Gökçeada and Bozcaada Kyrillos Sykis, at the Central Panayia Greek Orthodox Church in Gökçeada, where he met with the Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew I. 

During his visit to the island after 11 years at the level of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he visited the Private Greek Primary School in Zeytinliköy. Indicating that 60 children are educated in this primary school, “we hope this number will be 120 when the next foreign minister visits here. We are very happy about this situation”, noted Dendias. Dendias also visited Gökçeada Private Secondary School and High School in Tepeköy.

Speaking during his visit to Gökçeada, Dendias added the following: “We do not want tension between the two countries. We want and wish that these bilateral relations will continue in goodness. This is also the case for the Patriarchate. We want better steps to be taken.”

President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) Halit Habip Oğlu made the following statement with respect to the visit realised by Dendias: “It is very meaningful that Dendias went to our motherland to meet with the Orthodox Greek community there and the speech he gave there due to Easter. In this visit, which was held at the level of the foreign minister after eleven years, we hope that 120 children, not 60, will be educated in the primary school in Gökçeada, as Dendias indicated. We share the wish of our Minister, who stated that he wants the relations between Greece and Türkiye to continue on a good scale. We ask our Minister not to forget the Turkish community in Western Thrace in his own country, namely us. Indeed, while 60 children are studying in the kindergarten and primary school opened with only 5 children in Gökçeada with the support of our motherland, the number of our schools in Western Thrace has decreased from 226 to 99 in the last ten years. As two communities whose status and rights were determined by the Treaty of Lausanne, this school in Gökçeada also has a kindergarten. However, although kindergarten education is compulsory in our country, our country does not allow us to open bilingual kindergarten classes in these schools, and unfortunately all our demands on this subject are left unanswered. Our country will go to the elections soon, I hope the next government sees and hears the issues in our region and makes a sincere effort to solve them. This is what we demand from the current government and the next government.”

*Image: http://www.anadoluimages.com
 

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