ABTTF President: “The Ministry claims that the issue does not fall within their jurisdiction, but with the Municipality of Xanthi, while the Municipality notes that minority schools are under the competence of the Ministry! In other words, everyone is throwing the ball to each other! As such, we feel stalled and ridiculed, we have been shouting out our demand for many years, but at the point we have reached, it is not even clear who is competent! Shame on you!’’
The confusion of competence persists in the request for a new school building for the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School.
Following the response of Deputy Minister Zeta Makri, to the question of Xanthi New Left MP Hüseyin Zeybek on 16 December 2024 regarding the building issue of the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School and the request for a new building, noting that the building issue of the school was not within the competence of the Ministry, the issue was brought to the agenda of the Municipality of Xanthi.
On Thursday, 19 December, at the meeting of the Xanthi Municipality Council, Mayor of Xanthi Efstratios Kontos indicated that some demands were expressed by the school’s board and the Parent-Teacher Association and that the school is not under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Xanthi but the Ministry of Education and therefore that the Ministry should address this issue.
Due to the lack of classrooms in the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School, double-shift schooling has been provided for many years, and students and parents organised protests in 2019 and 2023 against it. Following a march organised in Xanthi in September 2023 with the participation of approximately 1,500 people, double-shift schooling was terminated, but the demand for a new school building has not yet been met.
In a short response to a petition submitted to the Ministry of Education by the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School Board and the Parent-Teacher Association regarding the request for a new building, it was underscored that the school building issue was under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Xanthi. In the parliamentary question submitted to the Greek Parliament, Deputy Minister Zeta Makri, in her response on 16 December, claimed that the existing building of the school was sufficient and safe and that there was no need for a new school building and further explained that the state had been supporting the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School for the past 50 years, but that the jurisdiction was within the Municipality, not in the Ministry.
‘‘The demand for a new school building at the Xanthi Turkish Minority Secondary and High School has turned into an unresolved mess! The Ministry claims that the issue does not fall within their jurisdiction but with the Municipality of Xanthi, while the Municipality says that minority schools are under the competence of the Ministry! In other words, everyone is throwing the ball to each other! Moreover, Deputy Minister Makri thinks that there is no issue with the school building! This absurd situation shows that the rulers of our country create a gap or confusion of competence when it comes to our educational demand, because they do not want to meet the demand for a school building. As such, we feel stalled and ridiculed, we have been shouting out this demand for how many years, at the point we have reached, it is not even clear who is competent! Shame on you!’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
Please click bellow to access the speeches realised before the Greek Parliament and at the Xanthi Municipal Assembly from the YouTube account of Gündem newspaper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwCxomHbp8g
Image. www.gundemgazetesi.com
