The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) said Greek authorities were systematically seeking to undermine the Turkish minority’s educational autonomy.
The federation assessed Eurostat data on public expenditure allocated to education. It said the data showed the priority that European Union countries give to the education sector.
Greece’s education spending criticized
ABTTF argued that Greece was among the countries that did not give education sufficient priority when allocating public resources. The federation said this created an obstacle to improving school infrastructure and providing better working conditions for teachers.
The statement said the problems faced by the Turkish community of Western Thrace in education were not limited to public policies. It alleged that the educational autonomy described as being guaranteed by treaties was being systematically dismantled through official practices.
The Turkish minority in Western Thrace
A Muslim Turkish minority of approximately 150,000 people lives in Greece’s Western Thrace region. The statement argued that the community faced discriminatory policies because Greek authorities considered it a religious rather than an ethnic minority.
It said the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923, contained provisions that effectively recognized the existence of Turks in Western Thrace. The Greek government, however, does not recognize the minority’s ethnic identity on the grounds that the expression “Turkish minority” does not appear in the text of the treaty.