MINELRES: ABTTF News: Education year started with problems in the 1st Minority School in Xanthi

[minelres@lists.microlink.lv]

Original sender: ABTTF <news@abttf.org>


Press Release 

Education year started with problems in the 1st Minority School in
Xanthi
 
Problems of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority in the field of
education still continue in the 2008-2009 education year. 24 students,
who could not make their registration to the 1st Minority School in
Xanthi between 1-20 June 2008 due to specific reasons applied for late
registration between 1-7 September 2008, and the principal of the school
approved the late registration of those students after the submission of
the required documents. Parents, who paid the first instalment of the
tuition fee, learned that the late registration of their children was
not approved by the Supervisor of the Minority Schools. The
justification made out was the exceeding number of pupils applied for
the registration. The Supervisor of the Minority Schools, who visited
the 1st Minority School in Xanthi, demanded the students to make
registration to the 2nd School in Xanthi established by the Greek state. 

On 12 September 2008, upon the decision of the Western Thrace Turkish
Minority Advisory Board, the member of the Turkish minority started to
raise a silent protest at the front of the 1st Minority School. Then,
the principal of the school first accepted the said children; however
the problem still remains unresolved. The meeting between the President
of the School Board, Binnur Osmanoglu and the MP of Xanthi, Cetin
Mandac? and the President of Parents Association, Sennur Hasan and the
responsible person for the private and minority schools under the
Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the Secretary for
Intercultural Education Aggelos Sirigos has not yet bring any solution
to the problem. 

The reaction of the Minority continues

A similar case made out last year in the Minority High School in Xanthi
makes the Western Thrace Turkish Minority perceptionize the event
occurred in the 1st Minority School in Xanthi as an effort of the Greek
state to direct the Minority children to the state schools rather than
the minority schools. In view of that the registrations of the concerned
children was cancelled because of the limitation of 25 student per
classroom, the minority representatives expressed that since there were
used to be three classrooms for the first grade in the 1st Minority
School in Xanthi, the number of students who applied for registration
did not exceed the limit. 

The events occurred in the Xanthi 1st Minority School have prompted the
reaction of the parents. The damnification of the children in the first
day of the school causes the Minority to react to the Greek authorities.
Expressing his views about the issue, President of the Federation of
Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), said that �The problem occurred
in the first day of the education year at the 1st Minority School in
Xanthi cannot be accepted. The children�s right to education cannot be
hindered in any circumstances. The lack of sufficient classroom or the
exceeding number of students should not prevent the minority children�s
right to education. If the problem had really been the excessive number
of students who want to be registered to the school, this should have
been enounced to the parents before the education year started. However,
the call-off of the late registration of the students whose late
registration was approved only a few days ago is considerably
meaningful.� Reminding the autonomous status of the Western Thrace
Turkish Minority with regard to education, Habipoglu said, �Education is
the most important ongoing problem of the Minority. Unfair and
anti-democratic practices prevent the establishment of mutual trust
between the Minority and the majority. A part of Greek media called the
problem in the 1st Minority school in Xanthi as a �paltry reaction� of
the Minority, which in turn deeply offends the loyal citizens of the
country, our Minority�

Habipoglu: Problems in education steals from the future of our children

Reminding an ongoing problem in the field of education, Habipoglu stated
that �The problem with the Greek teacher, Hara Nikopulu at the school in
Buyuk Derbent village, in Alexandropoulos last year still remains
unresolved. Although the coordinator and inspector responsible for the
minority school had promised that the teacher Nikopulu would have worked
at another school after the petition of the guardians of the minority
children, the teacher still works at the above mentioned school. And,
the parents protest the situation, and they declare that they do not
send their children to the school until the workplace of the concerned
teacher is changed. However, the loser in that situation is, with no
doubt, our children. Until the problems in the field of minority
education are resolved, the future of our children is pledged. These
children are the Greek citizens belonging to Turkish ethnicity. They are
born and grow up in this country. Therefore, the Greek state is
responsible for evolving and implementing a policy in line with this
fact and reality.� 

http://www.abttf.org/html/?callback_id=396978&link=detay&id=1641&l=en

ABTTF 

----------------------------------------- 

ABTTF 
Wemerstrasse 2 
58454 Witten 
Germany 

Tel.: +49.2302.913291 
Fax: +49.2302.913293 
E-Mail: info@abttf.org 
Homepage: http://www.abttf.org


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using Endymion MailMan.
http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ http://www.microlink.com/