Turkey rejected the funding for Greek, Armenian and Jewish minority schools. There are currently just 22 minority schools in Turkey, and it is estimated that their operations require approximately three million euros per year in total expenditure to maintain their current levels of operations. But the funding was refused by the ruling AKP party.
In light of the significant financial difficulties that Armenian, Jewish, and Greek minority schools in Turkey have been experiencing for some time, Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish parliament, introduced a bill this month aimed at “increasing resources” in the Turkish Education Ministry’s state budget for the year 2022.
Overall, Paylan suggested a bare minimum increase to assist minority educational institutions to meet the price of teacher salaries and the fundamental necessities of their facilities…. They have a total of approximately 4,000 students and require 40 million Turkish lira, which is approximately 3.2 million euros, in order to remain in operation.
Erdogan’s ruling party and Turkish opposition parties opposed the notion of an Armenian member of parliament and the emergency funding for Greek Jewish and Armenian minority schools was rejected.
Turkey, it should be recalled, recently “wagged its finger” at the Greek government because a number of minority schools in Thrace were forced to close because they failed to meet the required minimum number of students.
Turkey accused the Greek government of discrimination, oppressive behavior, and violations of the Treaty of Lausanne and human rights.
It is important to note that in the Greek case, the same thing occurred in non-minority schools in the region, and that, in contrast to minorities in Turkey, the Muslim minority of Thrace is exclusively religious, and as a result, the issues that concern it concern only the Greek state, rather than the Turkish state.
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