Discrimination

32 Discrimination in Turkey’s Education System
munity, 5 to the Greek community, 1 to the Jewish
community and 1 to the Syriac community.
In 2012 the Syriac community, which had been
denied the right to receive education in its mother
tongue throughout the Republican period, applied
to the Istanbul Directorate of National Education
for permission to establish a preschool offering
education in Syriac. However, the application was
rejected with the justification that Syriacs were not
a minority and therefore did not have the right to
establish a school providing education in ‘a foreign
language’. 30 The community brought this issue before
the Administrative Tribunal with a request to
reverse this decision, and the Tribunal ruled that
Syriacs were a minority and therefore had the right,
according to the Treaty of Lausanne, to establish a
school providing education in their own language. 31
The preschool established in Istanbul by the Syriac
community following this ruling brought the number
of minority schools in Turkey to 24.
When minority schools were attached to the
Ministry of National Education by the Law on the
Unification of Education that was introduced in
1924, they completely lost the (cultural) autonomy
they had held during the Ottoman period. The
curriculum used at these schools is the same as
that of other schools; unlike other schools, however,
these minority schools provide multilingual
education, with Armenian schools teaching in Armenian
and Turkish, Greek schools in Greek and
Turkish, and the Jewish school in Turkish and
English. The Jewish school also provides Hebrew
lessons at every grade level.
Throughout the history of the Republic, minority
schools whose existence was guaranteed by
the Treaty of Lausanne have suffered from treat-
30 On the rejection of the Syriac community’s
request for education in the mother tongue,
see ‘Azınlık Değilsiniz Yabancı Dilde Eğitim
Yapamazsınız’, http://www.agos.com.tr/
tr/yazi/2231/suryanilere-anadilde-egitimreddi-azinlik-degilsiniz-yabanci-dilde-egitimyapamazsiniz
31 ‘Utandıran Yasak Bitti: Süryaniler Anadilde Eğitime
Başlıyor’, Taraf, 10 August 2013, http://www.taraf.
com.tr/haber-utandiran-yasak-bitti-suryanileranadilde-egitime-131282
ment that was in violation both of this treaty and
of international law, and sometimes even of national
legislation. Policies towards these schools,
which have long been considered a threat to national
unity, have relaxed in recent years but so far
no steps to bring about a long-term solution have
been made. The main problems currently faced by
minority schools are outlined below.
Problems of status
Minority schools are not foreign or private
schools, but despite this they are mostly treated
as private schools, while in certain situations
they are considered foreign schools. There is no
law that defines minority schools and regulates
their rights and responsibilities, and these schools
are subject to legislation related to private education
institutions. 32 Even though they are not
profit-making private schools, minority schools
are treated as such and this situation puts them
at a significant disadvantage. For example, even
though these schools have very limited financial
resources, they are required to apply the standards
expected of private schools.
Furthermore, the fact that there is no status particular
to minority schools occasionally causes confusion
in the bureaucratic process, which can lead
to negative repercussions. One of the most striking
examples of the problem of a lack of status was the
fact that these schools, which are considered private
schools, were recently requested to provide
documentation showing that they had made VAT
payments. Moreover, the lack of status sometimes
creates problems in terms of meeting the needs and
demands of schools. For example, in response to
a request for a budget to be allocated to minority
schools, the MoNE stated that the Ministry had no
such budget. There is also no special unit within
the MoNE responsible for minority schools, and
these schools are attached to the General Directorate
of Private Education Institutions.
32 Law No. 5580 on Private Education Institutions;
‘Ministry of National Education Regulation on
Private Education Institutions’ published in Official
Gazette no. 28239 of 20 March 2012.