Instruction from the Director of the State Education Department of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace to ban Turkish

ABTTF President Halit Habip Oğlu: “The autonomy of minority schools is intended to be forgotten!”

The Director of the State Education Department of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace Panayiotis Keramaris has banned the use of Turkish by teachers from the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace in their communications. According to the daily Gündem, a letter was sent on 7 March 2016 to all directors of primary schools in Rhodope, Xanthi and Evros where the Turkish minority live. In this letter it was indicated that the teachers from the minority who are the members of the Regional Primary Education Management Commission (PISPE) have sent an info message to the schools in Turkish language and therefore the principals of minority schools should be warned by the directors of primary education. Keramaris has instructed that all notes and info messages sent to the schools would be in Greek, which is the official language of the state.

Panayiotis Keramaris, who is the member of ANEL Party that is the junior partner in coalition government of SYRIZA-ANEL in Greece, was appointed as the Director of the State Education Department of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace in 2015.

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) President Halit Habip Oğlu has stated: “In our country there is no doubt that the official language is Greek. Accordingly, the language of communication in state schools is Greek. However, there is an important point that is forgotten in the instruction given by Keramaris to ban Turkish in minority schools! That is the fact that our minority schools are autonomous! There is an obvious effort to make this reality be forgotten! Turkish and Greek are both used in our minority schools, which are bilingual. So, it is illogical to dictate the teachers at minority schools to use only Greek language. It is also unacceptable for us as it is a clear interference in the autonomous status that we enjoy.”