A Greek lawmaker’s remarks on the right to bilingual language have sparked an outcry from the country’s Turkish minority community in the Western Thrace region.
Ruling New Democracy (ND) party’s Angelos Sirigos in a speech on Tuesday opposed Western Thrace Turks’ request for a bilingual preschool, calling it a “provocative” move.
The European Federation of Western Thrace Turks (ABTTF) in a statement denounced Sirigos’ remarks and said the community’s requests have been overlooked for years.
Pointing out the opening of a Greek primary school in Türkiye’s western Çanakkale province’s Gökçeada district for three students, and Romania setting up a primary school for 20 students, it said Greece instead closes autonomous Turkish primary schools under the pretext of “low student numbers.”
Children of minority groups in Greece are obligated to enroll in Greek-language pre-schools per compulsory preschool education practice launched in 2017.
Turkish communities in Western Thrace have been demanding bilingual education in pre-schools – Turkish and Greek – for years to no avail.
The Greek Education Ministry announced on July 18 that it would shut down four Turkish primary schools in the Hacıören, Leziren and Payamlar districts of Rhodope and the Karaköy district in Xanthi (Iskeçe).
The move raised the number of Turkish minority schools systematically closed since 2011 citing low student numbers and brought the number of active minority schools in Western Thrace to 86. The region had 231 minority schools in 1995.
The Greek government has either closed or merged together countless Turkish minority schools in Western Thrace since 2011. Athens calls it not a closure but “suspension” citing a lack of students while Western Thracian parents consider it a move to send their children to Greek state schools.
Western Thrace is home to around 150,000 Turks. The community often complains of double standards and continuing inequalities in the country, namely socioeconomic discrimination, the closure of schools, the banning of Turkish-language education and refusing to legally allow the community to elect their religious leaders like muftis (Muslim clerics), a right under a treaty between Greece and Türkiye.
The rights of Western Thracian Turks are guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. However, over the decades, the situation has seriously deteriorated for the community, which is also economically one of the poorest in Greece.
The Greek government has committed numerous breaches of its obligations and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings over the years, including shutting down schools and mosques and banning the use of the words “Turk” or “Turkish.”
Türkiye has long criticized Greece for depriving the community of their basic rights and freedoms.
The issue also looms over Turkish-Greek relations, which have been strained for decades over several disputes regarding territorial claims in the Aegean.
But Ankara and Athens have agreed to cooperate on improving the conditions for the minority as part of their recent rapprochement efforts, with Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis making a vague promise to “continue working in line with postwar treaties that designate minorities’ status.”
