ABTTF President: “We hope and would like Stylianidis, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to refer to the issues our community is faced with in the field of education in his speeches and statements as a Member of Parliament of our region and to convince the government in resolving these issues’’.
New Democracy (ND) Rodopi MP Evripidis Stylianidis participated to the ‘‘STARFORUM 2024’’ event organised by STAR TV in Lamia and attended by distinguished people from politics, economy, academia, art and media.
In his speech at the event, where the main theme was education, Stylianidis presented data from the Council of Europe on international, national, and demographic development in (Western) Thrace, and indicated that education, along with faith, keeps Greeks living abroad connected to their homeland and effectively integrates populations of foreign origin into Greek society.
“As Stylianidis knows very well, there is not a single Turkish kindergarten in the prefecture of Rodopi, where we constitute the majority of the population, and in the prefecture of Xanthi, where we constitute approximately half of the population. The number of public kindergartens in each of these two prefectures is 141. Again, while there are 25 public secondary schools and high schools in the prefecture of Rodopi and 32 state secondary schools and high schools in the prefecture of Xanthi, there is only one Turkish minority secondary and high school in each of these prefectures. On the other hand, the building issue at the only Turkish minority secondary and high school in Xanthi has been continuing for years. Despite our educational autonomy, which is guaranteed by the treaties, Turkish primary schools with autonomous status in Western Thrace are being closed one by one every year. While we had 226 primary schools in 2003, this number has decreased to 90 in the 2023-2024 school year. We hope and would like Stylianidis, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to refer to the issues our community is faced with in the field of education in his speeches and statements as a Member of Parliament of our region and to convince the government in resolving these issues’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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