ABTTF on “European Day of Languages”: “Our demand for bilingual kindergartens is being ignored”
On the occasion of the “European Day of Languages” celebrated on September 26, the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) issued a statement criticizing Greek authorities for neglecting the longstanding demand of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace for bilingual kindergartens.
ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu stressed that “the right to education in one’s mother tongue is among the most fundamental human rights.” He stated:
“In our country, Greece, our demand for bilingual minority kindergartens offering education in both Turkish and Greek has been ignored for years. As a result, our children are deprived of the right to learn their mother tongue in preschool education. In regions where the Turkish community forms the majority in Rhodope and nearly half the population in İskeçe, there is still not a single minority kindergarten.”
Habipoğlu also drew attention to violations of educational autonomy guaranteed by the Lausanne Treaty:
“Our private and autonomous primary schools are being shut down on the grounds of low enrollment, and no permission is granted for reopening them. In 2011, Western Thrace had 188 Turkish primary schools; today, this number has dropped to 83.”
Reiterating its demand for bilingual minority kindergartens, ABTTF called on Greece, as a member of the European Union and the Council of Europe, to stop closing private and autonomous minority primary schools and to urgently ratify both the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
