ABTTF: 'The closure decision of the Ministry of Education is completely against the Treaty of Lausanne'

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) also reacted to the decision to close nine minority schools on the grounds of insufficient number of students.

In its written statement, ABTTF said, "Within the framework of Greece's decision to close primary schools with less than nine students across the country within the scope of economic austerity measures, there has been a very rapid decrease in the number of primary schools with autonomous status belonging to the Turkish community in Western Thrace since 2011. 12 Turkish primary schools were closed in 2021, 4 in 2022 and 9 in 2023. While in 1995 the number of Turkish primary schools in Western Thrace was 231, with this latest decision the number of Turkish primary schools has decreased to 90 in the last 28 years."

ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu said: "Our country continues to close down our primary schools with autonomous status, disregarding our educational autonomy guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne. Like the previous ones, this latest closure decision of the Ministry of Education is completely contrary to the Treaty of Lausanne! Our country, which calls on our motherland at every opportunity to comply with the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne and to respect the right to education of the Greek Orthodox minority in our motherland, sees no harm in violating Lausanne when it comes to the Turkish community in Western Thrace! Although we have the right to establish, manage and supervise our own schools, our country has constantly interfered with our educational autonomy through various laws and practices over the years. The purpose here is obvious: Our country wants to completely eliminate our educational autonomy by closing all of our schools with autonomous status over time. On the other hand, in line with the request of the Greek Orthodox minority with whom we share the same fate, the kindergarten and primary school opened in Gökçeada with the support of our motherland in 2013 with only 5 children and today 60 children are studying thanks to the opportunity given, on the contrary, in recent years, our primary schools in neighbouring or closely located villages in Western Thrace are being closed one by one. In the last ten years the number of primary schools has decreased from 226 to 90. We call on our country to immediately put an end to the practice of closing down our primary schools, which is a clear violation of our educational autonomy, and to establish a direct dialogue with us before taking decisions regarding our schools."