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Daily Sabah (11 August 2025)

The head of the Friendship, Equality, Peace (DEB) Party, Çiğdem Asafoğlu, on Monday, has accused Athens of systematically dismantling Turkish minority education in Western Thrace, warning that the closure of three more schools is part of a wider assimilation strategy in violation of international law.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Asafoğlu stated that the Greek Education Ministry has pursued a policy for years of reducing class sizes or shutting down schools attended by the Turkish minority. This year, just before the start of the academic term, authorities closed schools in Kardere and Mehrikos in Rhodope, as well as in Hasanlar village in the Evros region.

She stressed that student numbers are deliberately reduced each year under the pretext of “low enrollment,” resulting in a decline from 210 minority primary schools two decades ago to just 83 today. “This is a demographic engineering project targeting cultural and identity assimilation,” she said, adding that such actions are “a crime under international law.”

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