Greek plan to shut down minority Turkish schools decried by locals

By Derya Gulnaz Ozcan

ATHENS (AA) – The Greek decision to close four more primary schools belonging to the Turkish Muslim minority in Western Thrace for the 2022-2023 school year has been decried by locals, calling the move part of a systematic plan to cut the number of minority schools.

Aydin Ahmet, head of the Western Thrace Turkish Teachers Union, and Ozan Ahmetoglu, head of the Iskece Turkish Union (ITB), spoke to Anadolu Agency about the issue.

Athens makes decisions for the Turkish minority without bothering to consult with them, said Ahmet.

The practice of closing schools if the number of students falls below nine has led to a "steep fall" in the number of minority schools, he said, stressing that the number has fallen to less than 100.

So far Greece has disregarded the objections of the minority community on this issue, Ahmet added. Greece’s Western Thrace region is home to a Muslim Turkish community of around 150,000, especially in Gumulcine and Iskece, which has long faced systematic discrimination.

"Our schools are closed every year, one by one, on the pretext of a lack of children. Our schools, however, are private and autonomous according to the Treaty of Lausanne,” he argued, referring to a 1923 pact obligating Türkiye and Greece to protect minority Turks and Greeks in each other’s countries.

The suggestion that children in villages with a low number of students can be directed to nearby schools has gotten no response, he added.

Ahmet said the schools have been “temporarily” closed for two years, but then are never reopened despite more students wanting to enroll.

“A day-to-day reduction in the number of minority schools as much as possible is planned,” Ahmet said.

- Substandard schools, facilities

Highlighting the problems faced by the minority community, he said Turkish teachers in Western Thrace who graduated from education faculties at universities in neighboring Türkiye are not allowed to work in minority schools, and there are no bilingual kindergartens.

Ahmetoglu also told of the difficulties at the Iskece Minority Secondary and High School, which has about 750 students.

"The classrooms are too small and we even had to set up classrooms in the basement," he said. "Even though there’s an annex building, it’s not enough and first graders are taught at the secondary school in the afternoon."

He said the minority has been pressing for a new school building for years, but to no avail.

The Treaty of Lausanne envisages educational autonomy for the Turkish community in Western Thrace, and minority schools are mandated to provide bilingual education in both Turkish and Greek.

But over the last 27 years, the number of minority primary schools in the region has fallen sharply, from 231 to 99.

Only two schools, one in Iskece and the other in Gumulcine, provide secondary and high school education.

Türkiye has called the Greek decision to close the schools "discrimination."

Türkiye has long decried Greek violations of the rights of its Muslim and Turkish minority, from closing down mosques and shutting down schools, to banning associations with the word “Turkish” in the name, to not letting Muslim Turks elect their own religious leaders.

These measures violate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne as well as European Court of Human Rights rulings, making Greece a state that flouts the law, say Turkish officials.