Minority Advisory Board calls for an end to discriminatory practices in education
The Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board (BTTADK) issued a written statement criticizing the closure of Turkish Minority schools in Greece, calling on authorities to immediately end discriminatory practices in education.
According to the statement, Greece has systematically closed dozens of minority schools under the pretext of administrative reforms and declining student numbers. “In doing so, the state has neither acted in accordance with the Lausanne Peace Treaty — to which it claims constant loyalty — nor treated the Minority population as equal citizens, as it professes,” the statement read.
The Advisory Board pointed out that in the Karditsa region last year, a primary school was opened for just one student, and this year, another on Kea Island for only two students. “While we are pleased to see our fellow citizens benefit from such services, we are deeply saddened to witness the opposite approach applied to Minority schools,” the statement noted.
Although authorities have pledged that schools would reopen once the student population meets the required threshold, the Advisory Board stressed that this has not been the case in practice.
“Minority schools that fell below nine students were closed, with the promise that they would reopen once sufficient numbers were reached. This has proven false. For example, Musaköy Minority Primary School in Meriç in previous years, and this year Mizanli Minority Primary School in İskeçe, both reached adequate student numbers and applied for reopening. Yet the authorities refused, a clear double standard,” the statement said.
Quoting the words of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports Minister Sofia Zacharaki, who justified opening schools for two children to keep “national beacons” alight, the Advisory Board condemned the contrasting policy toward Minority schools:
“We cannot comprehend, nor accept, why national schools are supported for two students, while the beacons of the Minority are extinguished one by one. For over a century, the Minority has been citizens of this country. What is the aim of depriving them of their rightful education? Is such treatment fair to people who long for equal citizenship and educational rights?”
In conclusion, the Board issued a strong appeal:
“We call on all those responsible for Minority education to reconsider these imposed measures and to immediately abandon discriminatory and unjust practices.”
