Greek minority schools await approval of books
Vercihan Ziflioğlu
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
3/10/2011
Students in Turkey’s Greek minority schools use photocopies instead of regular books since the books sent from Greece still await approval to be distributed. Teachers ask for a immediate solution to the problem while the books are kept in a storage depot at the Private Greek Zapyon High School.
Minority schools for Greek Turks in Istanbul have begun their new term without any text books, as relevant ministries have not yet issued the required permits for the books that were sent from Greece in May.
“We are educating our kids with photocopies. The books in question are language and math books that will be taught at the elementary level,” Andon Parisyanos, who has been lecturing in the Zoğrafyon High School for 40 years, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Monday.
The books, which the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Education Ministry have failed to approve, have now been placed in a storage depot at the Private Greek Zapyon High School. The last books the schools received from Greece arrived in 1990, Parisyanos said.
The Turkish minority in Western Thrace in Greece receives their class books from Turkey, while the Greek minority in Istanbul receives their books from Greece, according to the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, the Turkish minority in Greece is not experiencing a similar problem.
“We had been going through [some] troubles until the beginning of the 2000s, but [these problems] have now been resolved. The books coming from Turkey are immediately approved by the Greek Foreign Ministry and handed over to us,” Sami Toraman, head of the Western Thrace Turkish Teachers Union, told the Hürriyet Daily News over the phone Monday.
The Greek minority schools ought not to have been experiencing such a problem, he added.
Lawyer Burhanettin Hakgüler, head of the Western Thracian Turks Solidarity Association in Istanbul, agreed with Toraman in that they were not experiencing any problems regarding school books. Both Hakgüler, however, said there was another significant problem their community was facing. “Our kids are receiving instructions in the Christian faith. This problem urgently needs to be resolved,” Hakgüler said.
The books for Turkey’s Greek minority were prepared by the Athens-based Universal Istanbul Residents’ Federation and shipped off to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on May 15, in due time for the beginning of the new term, Parisyanos said. “Little adjustments were required. The required adjustments were made, and the books were shipped to us again, but the results are there for all to see,” Parisyanos said.
They had also informed Turkey’s European Union Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış regarding the issue by sending him a letter, but this initiative also failed to yield any results, he said.
“The impression was created that the problem was going to be resolved, but no results were obtained. I am sorry for the trouble our kids have been exposed to,” Laki Vingas, a member of the Assembly of the Foundations General Directorate, told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Foreign Ministry sources told the Daily News on Monday that the situation was the result of a bureocratic mix-up and the distribution of the books could start within this week.
Some 1,500 Greek Turks still live in Turkey, while a total of about 250 students are studying at three Greek minority schools in Istanbul.
