Western Thrace Turks react to the impositions in Minority Education
School students, parents and kinsmen showed great reaction to the shift education practice imposed on Xanthi Minority Secondary School and High School students by the Directorate of Secondary Education in an unreasonable way.
The students boycotted the school on Monday 18 September and gathered in front of the school from the morning hours and blocked the entrance to the school. The students were supported by parents, kinsmen, elected Turkish Minority representatives and organisations.
The crowd gathered in front of the school and then marched with slogans. The streets of Xanthi echoed with the slogans "No to Shift Education". The students and parents of Xanthi Minority Secondary School - High School showed their reaction against the "shift education" practice imposed by the Directorate of Secondary Education and demanded a solution to the building problem at the school. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people participated in the protest march in Xanthi on Monday 18 September.
The crowd gathered in front of the school and marched towards the prefecture building where the Municipality of Xanthi and the Directorate of Secondary Education are located.
While the students carried the banners expressing the demands, the Board of Councillors and the PTA executives were among the students in the front row. Immediately behind the students at the front of the cortege, minority representatives drew attention. During the march, which lasted for about an hour, Ozan Ahmetoğlu and Hüseyin Baltacı, parents of the students, guided the crowd in chanting slogans. Throughout the march, slogans were chanted calling for the end of shift education, the solution of the school building problem and the improvement of minority education. During the demonstration, which continued with frequent applause, the slogans "No to shift education", "We want a school", "Urgent solution to the building problem", "We don't want afternoon education" in Greek and Turkish attracted attention.
The crowd departed from the front of Xanthi Minority Secondary School - High School and marched along Kavala Street to Xanthi town square. The cognates, who kept chanting slogans and applauding throughout the march, gathered in front of the town hall in the town square. Carrying banners in their hands, the students posed for the lenses on the steps in front of the town hall of Xanthi. Students carrying banners in Turkish and Greek continued to chant slogans together with parents and other kinsmen. The protesters also shouted slogans for the Mayor of Xanthi, Manolis Chepelis, who was going to bring prefabricated classrooms to the annex building of the school in order to end the shift education but did not do so.
The delegation consisting of Ahmet Kara, President of the Council, Bingül Tuzlacı, President of the Parent-Teacher Association, Hüseyin Zeybek and Burhan Baran, Minority MPs, Rıdvan Delihüseyin, Mayor of Mustafçova and Hüseyin Baltacı, President of the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association entered the municipality building to meet with Mayor Çepelis. Since Çepelis was not in the building, the delegation met with the Deputy Mayor of Xanthi Suha Bekiroğlu. While the absence of Tsepelis was met with reaction among the people, it was stated that the mayor was not aware of the meeting request.
The crowd then headed towards the old governorship building of Xanthi. The delegation firstly met with Kostas Kurtidis, the Deputy Governor of the province responsible for Xanthi. During the meeting the crowd waiting in front of the building continued to chant slogans in Greek and Turkish. Afterwards the delegation consisting of the Council Committee and PTA executives and minority representatives went to the office of the Director of Secondary Education of Xanthi, Malama Sidiropulu. Sidiropulu's absence caused a reaction among the crowd participating in the march. The participants chanted slogans demanding Sidiropoulou's resignation.
In his speech, Ahmet Kara, Chairman of the Xanthi Minority High School Board of Councillors, reacted by stating that the absence of Sidiropoulou was not an acceptable situation. Kara said, "When we met him on the first day, he asked us 'did only three of us come? Today, 1500 of us have come, but he is not here."
As the Director of Secondary Education Sidiropoulou was not present and did not meet with the delegation representatives, the participants of the protest symbolically closed the entrances and exits to the old governorship building for 15 minutes.
Addressing the crowd in front of the building, Xanthi SIRIZA MP Hüseyin Zeybek, Mufti of Xanthi Mustafa Trampa, President of the FEP Party Çiğdem Asafoğlu, President of the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association Hüseyin Baltacı, President of the Xanthi Turkish Union Ozan Ahmetoğlu, President of the Parent-Teacher Association Bingül Tuzlacı reacted against the practice of "shift education" and the director of secondary education who almost ignored the gathered crowd and the students who were suffering. The speakers emphasised that the imposition of afternoon education will not be accepted and that the building problem of the school must be solved.
Ahmet Kara, the Chairman of the Council Committee, stated that the action will continue on Tuesday 19 September and invited everyone to gather in front of the school at 07.30 in the morning.