Turkish parliament turns down proposal to fund Armenian schools
POLITICS
24.11.2021 | 15:31Turkish parliament has voted against the proposal to increase resources for the country’s minority schools belonging to the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities, T24 news site reported.
The proposal, submitted the proposal to the Planning and Budget Committee for 2022 by pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker of Armenian descent Garo Paylan, was rejected by the ruling alliance of the Justice and Development Party (HPD) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the site reported earlier this month.
Paylan submitted the bill on Nov. 2, calling for increasing resources by 40 million liras ($3.5 million) in the 2022 state budget of the Turkish Ministry of Education for a total of 22 such schools attended by some 4,000 students, according to T24.
Schools run by the Armenian, Jewish and Greek minorities in Turkey have history of facing financial difficulties, exacerbated by the gradual decline in the number of pupils over the years.
At the beginning of the last century there were over 1,900 Armenian schools in Turkey, with 173,022 students, according to Asia News news site.