Greek is the second language in Thrace

By Kostas Hardavelas
Educational Turkification in Thrace - Greek is the second language - violent Turkification of Pomaks and Roma, and of the Greek Muslim children in the border region.

This is the threefold objective of Ankara, which is revealed by the provocative proposal in the Greek parliament on Thursday, November 27, of the MP of SYRIZA Kara Yusuf Memet Ayhan, who asked, Turkish language to be taught first, as a mother tongue, in minority Muslim kindergartens in Thrace and Greek as a second language, causing an uproar on all sides of the House.

The plan for the Turkification of the children of Thrace Muslims has started almost three years ago, when the January 2012 the two directors of private high schools of Xanthi and Komotini, Hikmet Cakir and Tounalp Mehmet, as keynote speakers of the conference which was organized by the Cultural Educational Society of the minority of Western Thrace, on "bilingual education and implementation of the minority schools" had finally succeeded in the conference, to draw the following conclusions:

1. Support regarding the issue of twinning between educational institutions of "Turkish" minority of Western Thrace with schools in Turkey and abroad.
2. Increase the number of Turks revocable teachers to serve in Western Thrace and extend the geographical scope of service of these teachers in the areas of Xanthi and Evros.

3. Establishment of minority kindergartens, which will provide education in Turkish language.

The Assoc. Professor at the Polytechnic School of the Democritus University of Thrace Mr. George Pavlos gave an immediate response, to these provocative demands of the teachers (who are protected by the Turkish Consulate of Komotini), with a letter to the Special Secretariat Diaspora Education of the Education Ministry, where he wrote the following:

"The operation of bilingual kindergartens will be the last act of the drama for the Pomaks and Roma of Thrace, proclaiming, with the blessings of Greek State, the minority of Thrace as "pure Turkish". It will open wide the doors to the establishment of the Turkish language in minority schools, rejecting the Greek language in sidekick role, while will drive the Greek public kindergartens in obsolescence or closure, since it is certain that operate with few students."
Under the terrorism which is exercised by the Turkish Consulate in the Muslims of Thrace, children of Muslim dwindle as the years go by, more and more in public kindergartens. Many fear in Thrace that the establishment of the Turkish language in Muslim kindergartens, which are completely controlled by Turk teachers, will create a generation of Turkish janissaries, as these children are learning the idea of "Turkish Thrace."