Eight more primary schools belonging to the Turkish minority of Western Thrace in Greece to be closed down

ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu: “Through the Greek Education Ministry’s last unilat-eral decision representing an immediate impact on the education of the minority children, the autonomous structure of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace in the field of educa-tion has once more been ignored”

The Greek Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs has decided to close down eight more primary schools belonging to the Turkish minority of Western Thrace on the grounds that these schools have recorded diminishing pupil numbers. According to the daily Gündem, based on the report released by the Directorate of Education of the East Macedonia and Thrace Region and beginning with the academic year of 2015-2016, four minority primary schools (Payamdere-Paterma, Karagözlü-Exochi, Muratlı-Mirana and Çuka-Tsouka) in the Rhodope prefecture, three (Sinikova-Satre, Çaymahalle-Revma and Güney Mahalle-Prosilia) in the Xanthi prefecture plus one (Aksakal-Polia) in the Evros prefecture will be closed down by the Ministry.

In the past, the Greek Ministry of Education had already decided to close down a total of 44 pri-mary schools belonging to the Turkish minority of Western Thrace, namely 14 schools in 2011, 12 in 2013 and 18 in 2014.

“Through the Greek Education Ministry’s last unilateral decision, the autonomous structure of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace in the field of education has once more been ignored by the Greek government. It is not inadmissible that the primary schools belonging to our minority are go-ing to be closed down without any prior consultation with it. The Ministry justified its decision with the diminishing pupil numbers and deep economic crisis in Greece. However, we cannot follow the Ministry’s justification as these primary schools are not public schools. Then the eight primary schools to be closed down short before the beginning of the academic year of 2015-2016 possess private school status like all the other minority schools, and apart from those Greek teachers in-structing the Greek language, all the other Turkish teachers serving at these schools have been financed by the Turkish minority itself. We as the Turkish minority of Western Thrace are therefore ready to pay further the salaries of our teachers. We urge the Greek government to consult by all means with our minority before taking such decisions representing an immediate impact on the edu-cation and future of our children and to incorporate it from the beginning till the end in the decision-making process” stated Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).