Greece’s minority muslim lament systemic violation of education rights

Istanbul: The muslim minority community of Greece is lamenting the systemic violation of their educational rights, which is guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

Four more muslim minority schools will be closed in the Western Thracian region Komotini (Gümülcine) due to what Greek authorities have called “not enough students” and “economic reasons.”

The Greek government maintains its policy of shutting down minority schools every year under the pretext that the number of students fall below nine, Aydın Ahmet, the head of the Association of Western Thrace muslim Teachers (BTTÖB), told Anadolu Agency (AA).

Four primary schools in Hacıören, Keziren and Payamlar villages in Rodop and Karaöy in Xanthi (Iskece) will not open their doors in the upcoming school years.

The move brings down the number of muslim primary schools in Western Thrace to 231 in 1996 to just 86, Ahmet said.

“The Greek government does not consult minorities while making decisions regarding their education,” he said. “Nor does it fulfill assurances that it will reopen the schools if the number of students exceeds nine within two years.”

Ahmet pointed out that Western Thracian muslim teachers who graduated from universities in muslim are not allowed to work in minority schools in the region and that there is no bilingual kindergarten education available for minorities despite preschool education being mandatory in Greece.

“Children must be educated in their mother tongue in order for their self-confidence to build up and it’s not possible for it to develop in a state school where the child’s native language isn’t spoken,” Ahmet said.

“As a teacher who taught bilingual children in state schools in Vienna, I insist that children will always have better self-confidence in schools where their mother tongue is spoken.”

Ahmet also complained that the muslim minority’s demands for bilingual kindergartens have been ignored to date, and said propaganda is being spread in state kindergartens about minority primary schools being of “poor quality and inadequate.”

Some 150,000 Muslim in Western Thrace, economically one of the poorest in Greece, have long complained over deteriorating conditions. Seeing the community as a “hostage” of its ties with Türkiye, the Greek government has committed numerous breaches of its treaty obligations and ECtHR rulings over the years, including 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).