Children from Armenia read smuggled textbooks in Turkey
13.12.2009 17:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Children of Armenian citizens in Turkey have to
attend classes and read `smuggled’ textbooks at an illegal school in
the basement of a building in Istanbul.

Forbidden to attend Armenian minority schools under the Lausanne
Treaty and the Special Education Law, these children could not go to
school even if the Turkish-Armenian border is opened, unless the law
is changed.

There were almost 20 children ranging in age from 5 to 14 at the
school. Their greatest fear is that their location will be exposed and
every knock on the door makes them afraid that the authorities are
raiding the school. There are other illegal schools like this in
Istanbul.

Once outside the legal zone of Turkey, these children cannot even
attend Turkish schools, the only source of their education – illegal
"smuggled" textbooks and teacher volunteers, Hurriyet wrote.

Tzsonivar is 8 years old and she misses her father and siblings who
live in another country. Six-year-old Serge hopes to be president of
that country some day. But for now, they are stuck in a legal twilight
zone, unable to attend Turkish schools, studying in illegal elementary
classes with smuggled textbooks and volunteer teachers.

Serge and Tzsonivar are Armenian. Unlike Turkish Armenians who can
attend community schools established under the 1923 Treaty of
Lausanne, these children are citizens of Armenia. Unlike expatriates,
who often send their children to private foreign schools, Serge and
Tzsonivar are poor. The tuition for a non-state school would be more
than their undocumented parents can afford. Most parents would prefer
their children to be educated in the Armenian language, even if they
could afford to send them to private foreign schools in Turkey.

Even if all the problems between Turkey and Armenia are resolved,
Armenian-born children currently studying in an Istanbul basement
would still not be able to attend the country’s Armenian minority
schools.

A change in Special Education Law would be required for those children
to reclaim their right to an education. Only children with Turkish
citizenship who are from the country’s Greek or Armenian minority are
allowed to attend the minority schools in Istanbul, under the terms of
the Lausanne Treaty.