ABTTF President: “Like the previous ones, this latest decision of the Ministry of Education to close our schools is completely against the Treaty of Lausanne! We call on our country to immediately put an end to the closure of our primary schools, which is a clear violation of our educational autonomy, and to establish a direct dialogue with us before making decisions regarding our schools.”
In the 2023-2024 academic year, 9 more primary schools belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace will be closed citing the lack of sufficient number of students.
According to the decision issued by the Greek Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, Turkish primary schools in seven villages in Rhodope and two villages in Xanthi will be closed. In accordance with the relevant decision, Turkish primary schools in Amaranta (Yahyabeyli), Darmeni (Değirmendere), Amfia (Hacımustafaköy), Kato Kardamos (Gerdeme), Porpi (Ortakışla), Salpi (Sasallı) and Stilarion (Baraklı) in the Rhodope province and in Eora (Salıncak) and Palio Zigo (Mizanlı) in the Xanthi province will be closed.
Following the decision to close primary schools with less than nine students across the country in line with the economic measures in 2011, there has been a rapid decrease in the number of Turkish primary schools, which have, in fact, autonomous status. 12 Turkish primary schools were closed in 2021, 4 in 2022 and 9 in 2023. While the number of Turkish primary schools in Western Thrace was 231 in 1995, the number of Turkish primary schools decreased to 90 in the last 28 years with this latest decision.
“Our country continues to close our primary schools in autonomous status, ignoring our educational autonomy guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne. Like the previous ones, this latest decision of the Ministry of Education to close is completely against the Treaty of Lausanne! Our country, which calls our homeland to comply with the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne at every opportunity and to respect the right to education of the Greek Orthodox minority in our homeland, sees no harm in violating Lausanne when it comes to the Turkish community in Western Thrace! Although we have the right to establish, manage and supervise our own schools, our country has constantly interfered with our educational autonomy with numerous laws and practices over the years. The aim here is obvious: Our country wants to completely abolish our educational autonomy by closing all of our autonomous schools over time. On the other hand, in line with the demand of the Greek Orthodox minority with whom we share the same fate, thanks to the opportunity to open a kindergarten and primary school with only 5 children in 2013 in Imbros (Gökçeada) with the support of our homeland, on the contrary, our primary schools in villages in neighbouring or close to each other in Western Thrace have been closed one by one in recent years. In the last ten years, the number of our primary schools has decreased from 226 to 90. We call on our country to immediately put an end to the closure of our primary schools, which is a clear violation of our educational autonomy, and to establish a direct dialogue with us before making decisions regarding our schools”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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