Union of Minority School Councillors: "Kosmidou's statement does not reflect the truth"

The Union of Western Thrace Minority Schools Councillors stated that the statements of Meri Kosmidou, Acting Regional Director of Education for Eastern Macedonia - Thrace, regarding the closure of minority schools do not reflect the truth.

The Union of Councillors issued a written statement after Kosmidou, in an interview with the press last week, described the reactions and statements made by the minority members and organisations against the decision to close the minority schools as "lies and false news".

The statement reads as follows: "Mr Kosmidou emphasised that minority schools were not closed, but their functioning was temporarily suspended, and that they were reopened in case the number of students increased, and gave the examples of Musaköy and Palazlı Minority primary schools. We would like to emphasise that this statement of her is false and misleading to the public opinion. Because, Palazlı Minority Primary School, which was closed at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year, was never reopened. Again, Musaköy primary school, which was decided to be closed at the end of the 2013-2014 academic year, remained open as a branch of Hasanlar primary school upon objections and was completely closed at the end of 2021-2022. Therefore, Kosmidou's statement unfortunately does not reflect the truth.

We would like to take this opportunity to ask Kosmidou. Is the status of minority schools different from the status of public schools? Is it not? If it is different, on the basis of which article of which law are these closure decisions taken?

Why are the demands of the councillors and parents not taken into consideration at all when these decisions are taken? For example, the number of students in the closed Hacımustafaköy primary school will be 15 as of the 2024-2025 academic year and this issue has been submitted to both the Directorate of Primary Education of Rodopi and Simeonidis, who is responsible for minority education, with written declarations. Despite this, can goodwill be sought in the closure of the school in question?"

The statement, which once again called for dialogue on minority education, concluded with the following words: "As the Union of Western Thrace Minority School Councillors, we invite the relevant authorities to goodwill and dialogue and emphasize once again that only with goodwill and dialogue will minority education reach the desired level."