Six public kindergartens in the pilot project for the Western Thrace Turkish children announced

Halit Habip Oğlu: “As the Turkish community in Western Thrace, we demand that our right to education in mother tongue is respected and bilingual minority kindergartens as to have the same status with autonomous minority primary schools are opened.”

The six public kindergartens within the framework of the pilot project the villages where the Western Thrace Turks live have been announced by the Institution of Educational Policies affiliated to the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. With the decision of Kostas Gavroglu, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, the pilot project that would envisages members of Western Thrace Turkish community graduate of higher education institutions in Greece with command of both English and Turkish languages to work together with teachers assigned at state kindergartens shall start in total of six state kindergartens of which three would be in province of Rhodope and three in the province of Xanthi. Accordingly, the state kindergartens where this project would be implemented are in the villages of Paşevik(Paxni) and Alma(Agnilo) affiliated to Mustafçova(Myki) Municipality in the province of Xanthi and in the village of Kırköy(Kirnos) affiliated to İnhanlı(Evlalo) Municipality and in the province of Rhodope in the villages of Basırlıköy(Pasos) and Kozlukebir(Arriana) affiliated to Kozlukebir(Arriana) Municipality and in the village of Bulatköy affiliated to Yassıköy(Iasmos) Municipality.

Concerning the issue Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) made the following explanation “In his statement he made a few days ago Kostas Gavroglu, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs of our country Greece has indicated that the government wishes to pursue a respectful policy for Turkish minority in Western Thrace. However, implementation of the mentioned pilot project in the villages, where Western Thrace Turkish community lives, does not overlap with what the Minister said. As Western Thrace Turkish community we demand that our right to education in mother tongue is respected and bilingual minority kindergartens as to have the same status with autonomous minority primary schools are opened.”