ABTTF President: “Although the Council of Europe and the European Union encourage linguistic diversity and multilingualism, our demand for bilingual minority kindergartens that will provide teaching in Turkish and Greek in our country Greece has been ignored for years and our children continue to be deprived of the fundamental right to learn their native language, Turkish.’’
The European Day of Languages has been celebrated with various events throughout Europe on 26 September every year since 2001 with the initiative of the Council of Europe. On this important day, under the leadership of the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU), the importance of linguistic diversity and multilingualism throughout Europe is emphasised, and Europeans of all ages are encouraged to learn more languages at school or outside of school.
The main purposes of celebrating the European Day of Languages are defined as raising public awareness about the importance of languages, increasing intercultural understanding, improving the linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe and encouraging lifelong language learning.
While more than 200 different languages are spoken throughout Europe, more than 60 of them are regional or minority languages. On the occasion of the European Day of Languages, the fragile situation of regional and minority languages in Europe is highlighted and the need for their recognition, protection and support is underlined.
“As the ABTTF family, we celebrate the European Day of Languages for everyone living in Europe, where approximately one in seven people is autochthonous, a member of a national minority or speaks a minority language. Although the Council of Europe and the European Union encourage linguistic diversity and multilingualism, our demand for bilingual minority kindergartens that will provide teaching in Turkish and Greek in our country Greece has been ignored for years and our children continue to be deprived of the fundamental right to learn their native language Turkish. Our children are forced to attend public kindergartens where education is provided only in Greek. However, the majority of the population in the prefecture of Rodopi and nearly half of the population in the prefecture of Xanthi are composed Turks. There are 42 state kindergartens in Rodopi and 30 in Xanthi, but there is not even one bilingual minority kindergarten. Meanwhile, our primary schools are being closed one by one every year by virtue of a ministerial decision, in opposition to our educational autonomy guaranteed within the framework of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. While there were 194 Turkish primary schools in Western Thrace in 2008, this number decreased to 90 with 9 primary schools closed in the 2023-2024 school year. On this important day celebrating linguistic diversity and multilingualism, we reiterate our demand for bilingual kindergartens within the Turkish minority school system and call on the Council of Europe and our country which is an EU Member State to immediately remove all obstacles to our children learning and using their native language, Turkish’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: Council of Europe
