Banned bazaar at school successfully held in mosque courtyard
The traditional bazaar organised by the final year students of Xanthi Central Turkish Primary School in the school garden for cultural excursions and to prepare a graduation yearbook was not allowed by the Directorate of Primary Education of Xanthi.
The administrators, who did not object to the bazaar organised in the school garden in previous years, continue to prevent the activities that the Board of Councillors and the PTA want to organise in the school this year.
Despite these deliberate bans of the Directorate of Primary Education of Xanthi, which are a blow to the school and education, the parents of the students continue to successfully realise their planned activities in different venues.
The bazaar of the sixth grade students of Xanthi Central Turkish Primary School was successfully held on Saturday 9 March in the courtyard of Xanthi Çınar Mosque with the intense participation of the Muslim Turks of Xanthi.
High level protocol participation to the "Forbidden Bazaar" also attracted attention. Consul General of Türkiye in Komotini Aykut Ünal and his wife İlayda Ünal, Vice Consuls Baris Çulha, Subutay Koç and Adnan Öztürk, Mufti of Xanthi Mustafa Trampa, Xanthi New Left MP Hüseyin Zeybek, Rhodope New Left MP Özgür Ferhat, President of the Opposition Popular Movement in Mustafçova Municipality Cemil Kabza, Ozan Ahmetoğlu, President of Xanthi Turkish Union and Chairman of the Council of Xanthi Minority Secondary School and High School, Hüseyin Baltacı, President of Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association, Cengiz Ömer, President of Çınar Association, Bahri Belço, Deputy Chairman of FEP Party, Selçuk Fehmi, Principal of Xanthi Minority Secondary School and High School and many association executives, teachers and religious officials as well as a large group of cognates took part.
In a joint statement made by the Xanthi Central Turkish Primary School Parent-Teacher Association and the Board of Councillors, "We have completed one more event with a clean slate... Our applause goes to our 6th grade students and parents who did their best for our bazaar. We would like to thank our elders and our people who did not leave us alone in our bazaar."
The oppressive and prohibitive practices of the Greek administration against the Turkish Minority Schools in Xanthi do not stop. The units that do not raise a voice in the province of Rhodope for similar activities are almost infuriated when it comes to Xanthi and try to strike a blow to the Turkish Minority Schools with meaningless bans.
