The Regulation on Private Educational Institutions published in the Official Gazette on March 20, 2012, included the following provision: “Foreign-national guest students may also receive education at schools, considering the institution’s enrollment capacity; however, diplomas shall not be issued to these students. Students leaving the school shall be given a document prepared by the school administration indicating the courses they attended and the grades they received.” Armenian schools have admitted students from Armenia for approximately 14 years in accordance with this provision. However, diplomas could not be issued to these students.
Last month, inspectors from the Ministry of National Education conducted inspections at minority schools and verbally told school principals that guest students could no longer be admitted and that currently enrolled students should be transferred to private or public schools. The inspectors also requested information from Armenian school principals about the subsequent status of Armenian students who had attended the schools in previous years. Agos had previously brought the issue to public attention, and our report resonated in both Turkey and Armenia.
MAZLUMDER, a civil society organization closely following the educational situation of students from Armenia, also spoke to our newspaper. The organization stated:
“As is well known, the right to education is a universal and non-derogable right, regardless of a child’s nationality, legal status, or the immigration status of their family. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Turkey is also a party, explicitly guarantees this right. Therefore, we consider interrupting the education of children who are Armenian citizens on bureaucratic grounds to be a clear violation of human rights. If this interim arrangement, which has been in place for more than 10 years without resolving the problem, is to be abandoned, what needs to be done is to resolve the issue in a way that does not cause any hardship. We therefore call on the authorities to make the necessary legal arrangements. The Ministry should work to facilitate every child’s access to education while they are in Turkey.”
Last year, a total of 50 Armenian students from Armenia were studying at Armenian schools.
The situation of students from Armenia was also raised at the meeting of the Union of Armenian Foundations (ERVAB) on August 24, where AKP Istanbul MP Assoc. Prof. Sevan Sıvacıoğlu said he would take up the issue. Speaking to Agos on August 26, Sıvacıoğlu said that during a meeting with Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, the ministry had conveyed the following message: “There has been no new regulation concerning guest students studying at Armenian community schools in recent days, and schools are continuing their educational activities in accordance with the existing regulations.”
This development created the impression that the problem had been resolved “verbally.” However, according to information obtained by our newspaper, despite these developments, no official written notification has been sent to the Armenian schools. In this environment, some Armenian schools are hesitant to accept new students from Armenia, and some are not accepting them at all. The Ministry of National Education has made no statement regarding the developments. A meeting on the earthquake resistance of Armenian school buildings will be held at the Istanbul Governor’s Office on September 28. According to information we have received, the situation of students from Armenia may also be discussed at the meeting.
“What will happen to these children’s future?”
H.K., an Armenian mother who has lived in Istanbul for 20 years, spoke to Agos on behalf of herself and other families in a similar situation, calling for an end to the uncertainty affecting their children. H.K., who asked to be anonymous, said that Armenian children were unable to attend school and called for the grievances to be addressed. She said:
“We are Armenian citizen families who live, work, and produce in Turkey legally and who are deeply concerned about our children’s future. The inspections at schools and the covert pressure reported in your newspaper recently have, unfortunately, brought the lives of us and our children to a complete standstill. Today, one of our children, and tomorrow all of our children, are becoming direct victims of this injustice.
Our children are innocent, just five or six years old, at the very beginning of their school years. Growing up alongside their peers while learning their own language and culture, and going to school, are their most basic human rights. Yet now walls are being put up in front of us, regardless of whether the child is older or younger. While statements are being made in Ankara that ‘there are no new restrictions’, when we go to the schools, we are turned away because of pressure from [state] inspectors and verbal instructions [from officials]. School administrations are too afraid to enroll our children.
We are not living illegally in this country. We have official work permits, and our families have legal residence permits. Our spouses work day and night for this state, labor and pay their taxes to the last penny. If we fulfill all our responsibilities as members of this society, why is our children’s most basic right, the right to education, being violated? If we fulfill our obligations, why does the state not protect our children’s right to education?
These children were born here, are growing up here, and know this place as home. What will happen to the future of all these children who are already being turned away from school gates and deprived of education at such a young age? This de facto deprivation does not darken the future of just one child; it threatens the future of an entire generation.
All the schools have started the academic year and the school bell has rung. While all the other children have taken their places at their desks, my five-year-old child cannot go to school because she was turned away at the school gate and is now helplessly waiting at home. As a mother, I do not know what to do in the face of this deadlock.
Official statements from the authorities saying that ‘there is no problem’ do not dispel the fear at schools or the deadlock at the school gates. As families with all the necessary legal permits, we want our children’s right to education to be given permanent legal protection and an urgent solution to be found. Our children’s future must not become a victim of bureaucratic fears and uncertainty.”
In her statement to our newspaper, H.K. said that she had contacted several Armenian schools regarding her five-year-old daughter, but that her child could not be enrolled because of the situation. H.K. said school principals had told her, “They are putting pressure on us. They are telling us not to accept students from Armenia.”
H.K., who said she had been in Turkey for approximately 20 years, stated that she and her husband had residence and work permits and that her daughter was born in Istanbul.
H.K. also said that her niece is a seventh grade student at an Armenian school and that the situation had negatively affected the child’s psychological state. Regarding discussions with other Armenian families, H.K. said:
“We are all suffering. Because the schools do not know what is going to happen, they cannot tell us anything definite. They say, ‘We don’t know.’ These children were born here and have been attending these schools for a long time.”
H.K. emphasized that if the problem is not resolved, they will have to return to Armenia so that their child is not deprived of an education. She said:
“We have no choice when it comes to our child. But if we return, we will also lose everything we have worked for here.”
