Greek school re-opens on Turkish island after 40 years

CANAKKALE, Turkey

A Greek school on a Turkish island which lay closed for 40 years has re-opened its doors to a new generation of pupils.

Gokceada Private Secondary School and High School, which first started teaching 180 students in 1953, closed in 1975 due to a lack of students.

However, a re-opening of the school building – renovated last year – was held on the Aegean island on Monday with the participation of local villagers.

Eleven new pupils will be educated through Greek and Turkish this school year.

Chairman of the Imvrian Educational and Cultural Association, Ioakim Makis Kamburopulos, told the opening ceremony that:

“Today is a festival for us. We will not forget the past, but we should focus on the future.”

Omer Faruk Yelkenci of the Turkish General Directorate of Private Education Institutions said:

“We are hurt when one of our citizens is deprived of his educational rights there [Greece] as well as Greek-origin citizens here [Turkey]. There is no difference for us between a Turkish citizen and a Greek-origin citizen."

“Thus, I don’t believe that we have done something to deserve a medal; we carried out our responsibility.”

Gokceada, formerly known as Imbros, was mostly populated by Greek people before population exchanges between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s.