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ABOUT THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS OF TURKEY'S ARMENIANCY
Ruben Melkonyan
http://noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=6596
12.07.2012
Expert at the Center of the Armenian studies, "Noravank" Foundation,
the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the YSU, the
Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Assistant Professor
Education has always had a great importance in the Armenian lives;
around the world, Armenians have founded and developed their national
schools. Armenian community of Istanbul (called Bolis by Western
Armenians) also traditionally valued education and it was no mere
chance that by the end of the 19th century there were 90 Armenian
schools in Bolis, of which 40 community-based and 50 private ones [1,
p. 181]. In the same period 174 of the 454 Istanbul schools belonged
to non-Muslims (Armenians, Greeks, Jews) and 16,248 pupils, which is
about half of all schoolchildren in the city, were enrolled in these
schools [2, p. 18]. By 1914 there were 64 functioning Armenian schools
with 25,000 students [1, p. 181].
Turkish sources often regard the Armenian schools in the Ottoman
Empire as sources of anti-state, that is, anti-Turkish ideas, with
such sentiments even increasing in parallel to the activities of
Western missionary organizations. Turkish sources contend that the
ethnic and religious minorities, especially Armenians, believed the
missionaries supported their "separatist aspirations" [3, p.
180]. Turkish authors with more extreme views argue that: "Western
imperialist states who wanted to destruct and divide the Ottoman
Empire, collaborated with ethnic minorities, the schools of which
educated future clergymen and spies to work for them."1
The Armenians' right to have educational institutions and Armenian
lyceums in the Republic of Turkey had been established by the Articles
40 and 41 of the Treaty of Lausanne [4, p. 24]. Armenian schools
of Istanbul adjust their structures to match the changes occurring
in Turkey's general educational system and as of today they have
three-tier schooling: kindergarten - 1 or 2 years, primary education
- 8 years, high school (lyceum) - 3 years [4, p. 11]. Currently the
educational problems of Istanbul's Armenian community are part of
the problems generally related to the education among the ethnic
minorities in Turkey, and with this respect some interesting facts
have been published in the 2009 report Combating Discrimination and
Promoting Minority Rights in Turkey, which has been prepared with
the support of the European Union. For instance, the data of this
report clearly point to the diminishing numbers of ethnic minority
schools and pupils, which is largely related to government policies
predominantly aiming at assimilation.
The section of the report about the situation in education is quite
expressly titled as "Forgotten or Assimilated? Minority Rights in
Education System of Turkey."2 According to the data presented, in
1930-31 the number of minority schools in Tukey was 117, whereas by
1995-96 it has shrunk to 34 [5, p. 14].
In the first year of the Republic of Turkey, 1923, there were 47
Armenian schools in Istanbul [6, p.194], in 1972-73 their number
decreased to 32 with 7,366 students, while in 1999-2000 there were
18 schools with 3,786 students and in 2009-2010 only 16 schools
remained with 3029 students [4, p. 51]. As seen, in the period of 40
years (1972-2010) the Armenian community lost half of its schools and
students. As Garo Paylan, an Armenian pedagogue from Istanbul stated:
"Every year we lose around 150-200 students; if it continues this way,
we will close down 6-7 schools in the coming years."3
Falling number of the Armenian schools in Turkey is mainly related
to decreasing number of students, which is caused by several reasons.
However, it has to be noted that the Turkish government policies have
contributed to emergence of various problems. For example, on March 3,
1924 the Law on Unification of Education was adopted in Turkey, which
required bringing all educational institutions in line with laicism
(secularity) principles. This caused serious difficulties for Istanbul
Armenian educational institutions, since there were clergymen among the
teachers of national schooling centers and this law prohibited their
access to the schools. In addition, to be granted the right to teach,
the teachers of the Armenian schools had to pass qualification exams
before state commissions and obtain appropriate certificates. It has to
be mentioned that item e) in Article 32 of the Ministry of Education
No. 26810 decree specifically stipulated that "knowledge of Turkish
language, as well as its correct and regulated use is a mandatory
condition for Turkish citizens working in schools. If necessary,
these teachers shall take a Turkish language examination" [7]. In
1937 Turkey's Ministry of Education adopted a legal act stipulating
that in the schools of ethnic minorities the deputy principals must
be ethnic Turkish, in order to "bring up the students in line with
the Turkish culture" [6, pp. 195-196]. Interestingly, quite often
nationalistically oriented people are appointed as deputy principals.
In minority schools the subjects History of Turkey and Civil Defense
are taught by ethnic Turkish specialists. The organization and control
of teaching process in minority schools is regulated by the Ministry
of Education decree No. 26810 on private educational institutions,
which is based on the Law on Special Educational Institutions No. 5580
of February 8, 2007.
In the context of the Turkish bid for the European Union membership,
series of human rights studies were carried out in the country. One
of such studies contains recommendations directed to the Turkish
government regarding the problems in ethnic minority schools, including
abolishment of the mandatory requirement for minority school deputy
principals and Turkish culture teachers to be ethnic Turks [8].
As mentioned above, currently there are only 16 Armenian schooling
centers in Istanbul. In the recent years Pangalti Immaculate
Conception and Nersessian-Yermonian primary schools were closed due
to decreased number of students and financial problems. The table
below represents the most recent data on Istanbul Armenian schools
and number of students that have been prepared by Silva Kuyumjian,
years-long principal of the Istanbul Getronagan High School4 [4, p.
50].
Gradual deterioration of situation with Istanbul Armenian schools
has some underlying reasons, some of which are as follows:
1. One of the most troubling problems is the year-to-year decline of
the number of students5. Years ago most of the Armenian parents used
to send their children at least to Armenian primary schools where
they could learn Armenian in parallel with gaining general knowledge
[4, p. 28]. The situation is different today and many parents prefer
to send their children to Turkish, English, German schools (lyceums),
where the education quality is quite high [9, p. 22], and later makes
it easier to get admitted to universities.
Decrease of the student numbers is also directly related to emigration
of Istanbul Armenians. It is worth mentioning that the number of
Istanbul Armenian school students remained the same or did not decline
drastically in 1960s, because many Armenians moved from provinces to
Istanbul and sent their children to Armenian schools.
2. Problems of Armenian schools include lack of textbooks in Armenian
and their quality. Moreover, it is prohibited to teach by textbooks
published abroad (e.g. in Armenia).
3. Qualification level of the teachers is also an important issue.
Speaking Turkish increasingly in everyday life and in families does
not help the matter either and it has to be noted that unfortunately,
Armenian language constantly rolls back in the Armenian schools.
Teachers do not have good enough command of Armenian to be able to
teach in the mother tongue, whereas students are not known to be too
keen about this. As Silva Kuyumjian has put it; "The level of the
Armenian language teaching has dropped to an extent that it is no
longer possible to meet a young person who is fluent in Armenian"[4,
p. 13]. Regarding the decline of the Armenian language level it was
even once opined during a community meeting that Armenian has become
an "intermediate language" or "having a status weaker than a mother
tongue, but stronger than a foreign language" [10]. Currently, in some
of the community's churches preaching has to be done also in Turkish
so as to be understood by the Turkish speaking attendees. Findings
of a recent sociological survey indicate that Armenian language is
used only by 18% of the Istanbul Armenian community [6, p. 309].
Silva Kuyumjian notes that prior to 1970s teachers in Istanbul
Armenian schools were highly qualified and had excellent command of
the mother tongue. The mentees of this generation who succeeded them
were considerably less proficient in command of the mother tongue
and this adversely affected the teaching quality and students. Hence,
these teachers preferred teaching in Turkish over deficient teaching in
Armenian. Silva Kuyumjian's following deliberation is quite indicative
of the Istanbul Armenian schoolteachers' professional level: "Today,
we have no male teachers in our primary schools, and females just teach
as a side occupation to their housewife activities" (bold script by
the author of this paper - R.M.) [4, p.19]. It has to be added that
persons who are not Turkish citizens do not have the right to teach in
Turkey's minority schools. The legislation stipulates state control
to be exerted both over the subjects taught and school management,
including appointments to teacher positions.
Educational Problems of the Republic of Armenia Citizens Living
in Turkey
In the recent years a problem has surfaced related to the education
for children of the Republic of Armenia citizens illegally residing
in Istanbul. Representatives of the Armenian community have brought
the issue to the attention of Turkish authorities and it is expected
that there might be positive changes in this matter starting as
early as 2011-2012 academic year. Meanwhile, before the problem is
addressed, since 2003 an underground Armenian school functions in
the basement of the GedikpaÅ~_a Armenian Evangelical Church, where
around 60 Armenian children study in 1st to 5th grades6. The idea to
create a school for children of Armenian nationals belongs to Alex
Uzuroglu, an Istanbul Armenian and Heriknaz Avagyan, a pedagogue from
Armenia residing in Istanbul. They have made a request to the Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople to provide premises, but their request
has been denied. Afterwards, Rev. Krikor Agabaloglu, Pastor of the
Armenian Evangelical Church extended a helping hand and offered them
space. Interestingly, as per the information obtained, specialists
with higher pedagogical education teach at this underground school in
accordance with Republic of Armenia school curricula, and the walls
are decorated with the Armenian flag, map and national anthem7.
Educational Problems of Mixed Parentage Children
Endogamy is widespread among Armenians and efforts are made maintain
it especially outside Armenia. The Istanbul community has also paid
much attention to endogamy, but a number of developments affected
the process and today the number of intermarriages outside the
community gradually increases, and there are even some opinions that
they comprise as many as 40-50%. This brings concerns in the sense
that intermarriages result in many problems related to religious
affiliation, national self-consciousness and of course, education.
With increasing occurrences of mixed marriages the Armenian community
on one hand, tries to get adapted to the situation arisen, and on
the other hand, to find solutions for emerging dilemmas among which
various educational issues are important. The problem is, to enroll
in an Armenian school both parents of a child must be members of the
Armenian Apostolic Church and actually the law forbade mixed parentage
children to attend Armenian schools even if they wished so.
However in 2010 the Turkish Ministry of education issued a notice
which significantly slackened this requirement, stating that only
one of the parents had to be an Armenian Christian. It is anticipated
that this measure might change the situation and positively affect the
Armenian schools in terms of the number of students. Moreover, Istanbul
Armenian schools admitted the first students of mixed parentage, yet
this process has another interesting aspect. As it has become known
from different sources, among the children admitted to the Armenian
schools there are some born to parents one of which is Muslim. Karekin
Barsamyan, Principal of the Mkhitarian Armenian High School has noted
in an interview to Hurriyet Daily News reporter of Armenian descent
Vercihan Ziflioglu: "A number of the school's students were registered
as Muslim on their identity cards. Regardless of what their identity
cards say, these kids are receiving an Armenian-Christian education
and they will decide upon their identities themselves in the future."8
Remarkably, there are some Armenian schoolchildren one of whose parents
is an Armenian Christian and the other one is a descendant of forcibly
Islamized Armenians. For example, 34 years old Aylin descends from an
Armenian family from Mush converted to Islam in 1915. She is married
to an Armenian Christian man and has a 9 years old son who attends an
Armenian school. The mother's family live as devout Muslims, whereas
the father's kin are Christians, and this circumstance causes identity
crisis type of experiences for the 9-year-old boy.
Nevertheless, the family has decided to send the boy to an Armenian
school, and Aylin, the descendent of forcibly Islamized Armenians
brings the following argument for that: "I could not learn about
my language and my culture. I want him to at least have a notion
about it".9
1 Kılıc R., Osmanlı Turkiye'sinde azınlık okulları (19.
yuzyıl), http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=374&DilId=1
2 Unutmak mı, asimilâsyon mu? Turkiye'nin egitim sisteminde
azınlıklar, http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=409&DilId=1
3Ibid.
4 The (-) sign in the Table indicates that there is no kindrgarten,
primary school or liceum (high school) in the given school.
5 Data provided by Silva Kuyumjian, Principal of the Istanbul
Getronagan High School, point to the gradual, and unfortunately,
steady decline of Istanbul Armenian school students over the last ten
years. These data in accordance with academic years are as follows:
2000-2001 - 3,711 students, 2001-2002 - 3,530, 2002-2003 - 3,401,
2003-2004 - 3,289, 2004-2005 - 3,210, 2005-2006 - 3,162, 2006-2007 -
3,099, 2007-2008 - 3,023, 2008-2009 - 3,045, 2009-2010 - 3029 [4,
p. 47].
6 http://www.news.am/arm/news/52487.html
7 Ibid.
8 Ziflioglu V., Ermeni Azınlık Okullarında Karma Evliliklerden İlk
Jenerasyonhttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=armenian-schools-open-doors-to-a-di
fferent-audience-2011-01-27
9 Ibid.
References and Literature
1. Õ~@Õ¡Õµ Õ~MO~CÕµÕ¸O~BÕ¼O~D Õ°Õ¡Õ¶O~@Õ¡Õ£Õ"Õ¿Õ¡O~@Õ¡Õ¶, ÔµO~@O~GÕ¡Õ¶,
2003: 2. Alkan M., Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e modernleÅ~_me surecinde
egitim istatistikleri, Tarihsel istatistikler dizisi, Devlet
İstatistik Kurumu, sayı 6.
3. Haydaroglu P., Osmanlı İmparatorlugunda yabancı okullar,
Ankara, 1990.
4. 4. Ô³Õ¸O~BÕµÕ¸O~BÕ´Õ³Õ¥Õ¡Õ¶ Õ~M., Ô±Õ¯Õ¶Õ¡O~@Õ¯ Õ´Õ¨`
Õ½Õ¿Õ¡Õ¶ÕºÕ¸O~BÕ¬Õ¡Õ°Õ¡Õµ Õ¾Õ¡O~@ÕªÕ¡O~@Õ¡Õ¶Õ¶Õ¥O~@Õ¸O~B
Õ"O~@Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶Õ¸O~BÕ©Õ¥Õ¡Õ¶, Õ~MÕ¿Õ¡Õ¶ÕºÕ¸O~BÕ¬, 2010: 5. Cumhuriyet
dönemi İstanbul istatistikleri, Egitim İstanbul I (İlk, Orta,
Lise, 1928 - 1996), İstanbul Kulliyatı, İstanbul, 1998.
6. Ozdogan G., Ustel F., KarakaÅ~_lı K., Kentel F., Turkiye'de
Ermeniler: Cemaat-Birey-YurttaÅ~_, Ä°stanbul, 2009.
7. T.C. Resmi Gazete, 8 Mart 2008, sayı: 26810.
8. Ô±Õ¯O...Õ½, 14,12, 2007: 9. Ô¼Õ¸O~DÕ´Õ¡Õ£ÕµÕ¸Õ¦ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Õ~O.,
Õ~MÕ¿Õ¡Õ´Õ¢Õ¸O~BÕ¬Õ" Õ°Õ¡ÕµÕ¯Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ¤ÕºO~@Õ¸O~AÕ¶Õ¥O~@Õ¨,
Â"Ô³Õ¬Õ¸Õ¢Õ¸O~BÕ½Â" Õ¾Õ¥O~@Õ¬Õ¸O~BÕ®Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ¿Õ¥Õ²Õ¥Õ¯Õ¡Õ£Õ"O~@,
ÔµO~@O~GÕ¡Õ¶, 2008, Õ©Õ"Õ¾ 3: 10. Agos, 11,10, 1996.
11. Kılıc R., Osmanlı Turkiye'sinde azınlık okulları (19.
yuzyıl), - http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=374&DilId=1
12. Unutmak mı, asimilâsyon mu? Turkiye'nin egitim sisteminde
azınlıklar, - http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=409&DilId=1
13. http://www.news.am/arm/news/52487.html 14. Ziflioglu
V., Ermeni Azınlık Okullarında Karma Evliliklerden İlk
Jenerasyonhttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=armenian-schools-open-doors-to-a-di
fferent-audience-2011-01-27
Return
__________________________________________________ __________________________
Another materials of author * ON MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ORGANIZATION
OF THE ARMENIANS IN TURKEY[29.05.2012] * THE ISSUE OF THE ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE AND MODERN TENDENCIES OF TURKEY'S POLICY[14.05.2012] *
THE STUDY OF THE ISSUE OF ISLAMIZED ARMENIANS IN TURKEY: PROBLEMS
AND PROSPECTS[12.04.2012] * THE ISSUE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN
THE TURKISH PARLIAMENT [08.12.2011]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Ruben Melkonyan
http://noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=6596
12.07.2012
Expert at the Center of the Armenian studies, "Noravank" Foundation,
the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the YSU, the
Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Assistant Professor
Education has always had a great importance in the Armenian lives;
around the world, Armenians have founded and developed their national
schools. Armenian community of Istanbul (called Bolis by Western
Armenians) also traditionally valued education and it was no mere
chance that by the end of the 19th century there were 90 Armenian
schools in Bolis, of which 40 community-based and 50 private ones [1,
p. 181]. In the same period 174 of the 454 Istanbul schools belonged
to non-Muslims (Armenians, Greeks, Jews) and 16,248 pupils, which is
about half of all schoolchildren in the city, were enrolled in these
schools [2, p. 18]. By 1914 there were 64 functioning Armenian schools
with 25,000 students [1, p. 181].
Turkish sources often regard the Armenian schools in the Ottoman
Empire as sources of anti-state, that is, anti-Turkish ideas, with
such sentiments even increasing in parallel to the activities of
Western missionary organizations. Turkish sources contend that the
ethnic and religious minorities, especially Armenians, believed the
missionaries supported their "separatist aspirations" [3, p.
180]. Turkish authors with more extreme views argue that: "Western
imperialist states who wanted to destruct and divide the Ottoman
Empire, collaborated with ethnic minorities, the schools of which
educated future clergymen and spies to work for them."1
The Armenians' right to have educational institutions and Armenian
lyceums in the Republic of Turkey had been established by the Articles
40 and 41 of the Treaty of Lausanne [4, p. 24]. Armenian schools
of Istanbul adjust their structures to match the changes occurring
in Turkey's general educational system and as of today they have
three-tier schooling: kindergarten - 1 or 2 years, primary education
- 8 years, high school (lyceum) - 3 years [4, p. 11]. Currently the
educational problems of Istanbul's Armenian community are part of
the problems generally related to the education among the ethnic
minorities in Turkey, and with this respect some interesting facts
have been published in the 2009 report Combating Discrimination and
Promoting Minority Rights in Turkey, which has been prepared with
the support of the European Union. For instance, the data of this
report clearly point to the diminishing numbers of ethnic minority
schools and pupils, which is largely related to government policies
predominantly aiming at assimilation.
The section of the report about the situation in education is quite
expressly titled as "Forgotten or Assimilated? Minority Rights in
Education System of Turkey."2 According to the data presented, in
1930-31 the number of minority schools in Tukey was 117, whereas by
1995-96 it has shrunk to 34 [5, p. 14].
In the first year of the Republic of Turkey, 1923, there were 47
Armenian schools in Istanbul [6, p.194], in 1972-73 their number
decreased to 32 with 7,366 students, while in 1999-2000 there were
18 schools with 3,786 students and in 2009-2010 only 16 schools
remained with 3029 students [4, p. 51]. As seen, in the period of 40
years (1972-2010) the Armenian community lost half of its schools and
students. As Garo Paylan, an Armenian pedagogue from Istanbul stated:
"Every year we lose around 150-200 students; if it continues this way,
we will close down 6-7 schools in the coming years."3
Falling number of the Armenian schools in Turkey is mainly related
to decreasing number of students, which is caused by several reasons.
However, it has to be noted that the Turkish government policies have
contributed to emergence of various problems. For example, on March 3,
1924 the Law on Unification of Education was adopted in Turkey, which
required bringing all educational institutions in line with laicism
(secularity) principles. This caused serious difficulties for Istanbul
Armenian educational institutions, since there were clergymen among the
teachers of national schooling centers and this law prohibited their
access to the schools. In addition, to be granted the right to teach,
the teachers of the Armenian schools had to pass qualification exams
before state commissions and obtain appropriate certificates. It has to
be mentioned that item e) in Article 32 of the Ministry of Education
No. 26810 decree specifically stipulated that "knowledge of Turkish
language, as well as its correct and regulated use is a mandatory
condition for Turkish citizens working in schools. If necessary,
these teachers shall take a Turkish language examination" [7]. In
1937 Turkey's Ministry of Education adopted a legal act stipulating
that in the schools of ethnic minorities the deputy principals must
be ethnic Turkish, in order to "bring up the students in line with
the Turkish culture" [6, pp. 195-196]. Interestingly, quite often
nationalistically oriented people are appointed as deputy principals.
In minority schools the subjects History of Turkey and Civil Defense
are taught by ethnic Turkish specialists. The organization and control
of teaching process in minority schools is regulated by the Ministry
of Education decree No. 26810 on private educational institutions,
which is based on the Law on Special Educational Institutions No. 5580
of February 8, 2007.
In the context of the Turkish bid for the European Union membership,
series of human rights studies were carried out in the country. One
of such studies contains recommendations directed to the Turkish
government regarding the problems in ethnic minority schools, including
abolishment of the mandatory requirement for minority school deputy
principals and Turkish culture teachers to be ethnic Turks [8].
As mentioned above, currently there are only 16 Armenian schooling
centers in Istanbul. In the recent years Pangalti Immaculate
Conception and Nersessian-Yermonian primary schools were closed due
to decreased number of students and financial problems. The table
below represents the most recent data on Istanbul Armenian schools
and number of students that have been prepared by Silva Kuyumjian,
years-long principal of the Istanbul Getronagan High School4 [4, p.
50].
Gradual deterioration of situation with Istanbul Armenian schools
has some underlying reasons, some of which are as follows:
1. One of the most troubling problems is the year-to-year decline of
the number of students5. Years ago most of the Armenian parents used
to send their children at least to Armenian primary schools where
they could learn Armenian in parallel with gaining general knowledge
[4, p. 28]. The situation is different today and many parents prefer
to send their children to Turkish, English, German schools (lyceums),
where the education quality is quite high [9, p. 22], and later makes
it easier to get admitted to universities.
Decrease of the student numbers is also directly related to emigration
of Istanbul Armenians. It is worth mentioning that the number of
Istanbul Armenian school students remained the same or did not decline
drastically in 1960s, because many Armenians moved from provinces to
Istanbul and sent their children to Armenian schools.
2. Problems of Armenian schools include lack of textbooks in Armenian
and their quality. Moreover, it is prohibited to teach by textbooks
published abroad (e.g. in Armenia).
3. Qualification level of the teachers is also an important issue.
Speaking Turkish increasingly in everyday life and in families does
not help the matter either and it has to be noted that unfortunately,
Armenian language constantly rolls back in the Armenian schools.
Teachers do not have good enough command of Armenian to be able to
teach in the mother tongue, whereas students are not known to be too
keen about this. As Silva Kuyumjian has put it; "The level of the
Armenian language teaching has dropped to an extent that it is no
longer possible to meet a young person who is fluent in Armenian"[4,
p. 13]. Regarding the decline of the Armenian language level it was
even once opined during a community meeting that Armenian has become
an "intermediate language" or "having a status weaker than a mother
tongue, but stronger than a foreign language" [10]. Currently, in some
of the community's churches preaching has to be done also in Turkish
so as to be understood by the Turkish speaking attendees. Findings
of a recent sociological survey indicate that Armenian language is
used only by 18% of the Istanbul Armenian community [6, p. 309].
Silva Kuyumjian notes that prior to 1970s teachers in Istanbul
Armenian schools were highly qualified and had excellent command of
the mother tongue. The mentees of this generation who succeeded them
were considerably less proficient in command of the mother tongue
and this adversely affected the teaching quality and students. Hence,
these teachers preferred teaching in Turkish over deficient teaching in
Armenian. Silva Kuyumjian's following deliberation is quite indicative
of the Istanbul Armenian schoolteachers' professional level: "Today,
we have no male teachers in our primary schools, and females just teach
as a side occupation to their housewife activities" (bold script by
the author of this paper - R.M.) [4, p.19]. It has to be added that
persons who are not Turkish citizens do not have the right to teach in
Turkey's minority schools. The legislation stipulates state control
to be exerted both over the subjects taught and school management,
including appointments to teacher positions.
Educational Problems of the Republic of Armenia Citizens Living
in Turkey
In the recent years a problem has surfaced related to the education
for children of the Republic of Armenia citizens illegally residing
in Istanbul. Representatives of the Armenian community have brought
the issue to the attention of Turkish authorities and it is expected
that there might be positive changes in this matter starting as
early as 2011-2012 academic year. Meanwhile, before the problem is
addressed, since 2003 an underground Armenian school functions in
the basement of the GedikpaÅ~_a Armenian Evangelical Church, where
around 60 Armenian children study in 1st to 5th grades6. The idea to
create a school for children of Armenian nationals belongs to Alex
Uzuroglu, an Istanbul Armenian and Heriknaz Avagyan, a pedagogue from
Armenia residing in Istanbul. They have made a request to the Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople to provide premises, but their request
has been denied. Afterwards, Rev. Krikor Agabaloglu, Pastor of the
Armenian Evangelical Church extended a helping hand and offered them
space. Interestingly, as per the information obtained, specialists
with higher pedagogical education teach at this underground school in
accordance with Republic of Armenia school curricula, and the walls
are decorated with the Armenian flag, map and national anthem7.
Educational Problems of Mixed Parentage Children
Endogamy is widespread among Armenians and efforts are made maintain
it especially outside Armenia. The Istanbul community has also paid
much attention to endogamy, but a number of developments affected
the process and today the number of intermarriages outside the
community gradually increases, and there are even some opinions that
they comprise as many as 40-50%. This brings concerns in the sense
that intermarriages result in many problems related to religious
affiliation, national self-consciousness and of course, education.
With increasing occurrences of mixed marriages the Armenian community
on one hand, tries to get adapted to the situation arisen, and on
the other hand, to find solutions for emerging dilemmas among which
various educational issues are important. The problem is, to enroll
in an Armenian school both parents of a child must be members of the
Armenian Apostolic Church and actually the law forbade mixed parentage
children to attend Armenian schools even if they wished so.
However in 2010 the Turkish Ministry of education issued a notice
which significantly slackened this requirement, stating that only
one of the parents had to be an Armenian Christian. It is anticipated
that this measure might change the situation and positively affect the
Armenian schools in terms of the number of students. Moreover, Istanbul
Armenian schools admitted the first students of mixed parentage, yet
this process has another interesting aspect. As it has become known
from different sources, among the children admitted to the Armenian
schools there are some born to parents one of which is Muslim. Karekin
Barsamyan, Principal of the Mkhitarian Armenian High School has noted
in an interview to Hurriyet Daily News reporter of Armenian descent
Vercihan Ziflioglu: "A number of the school's students were registered
as Muslim on their identity cards. Regardless of what their identity
cards say, these kids are receiving an Armenian-Christian education
and they will decide upon their identities themselves in the future."8
Remarkably, there are some Armenian schoolchildren one of whose parents
is an Armenian Christian and the other one is a descendant of forcibly
Islamized Armenians. For example, 34 years old Aylin descends from an
Armenian family from Mush converted to Islam in 1915. She is married
to an Armenian Christian man and has a 9 years old son who attends an
Armenian school. The mother's family live as devout Muslims, whereas
the father's kin are Christians, and this circumstance causes identity
crisis type of experiences for the 9-year-old boy.
Nevertheless, the family has decided to send the boy to an Armenian
school, and Aylin, the descendent of forcibly Islamized Armenians
brings the following argument for that: "I could not learn about
my language and my culture. I want him to at least have a notion
about it".9
1 Kılıc R., Osmanlı Turkiye'sinde azınlık okulları (19.
yuzyıl), http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=374&DilId=1
2 Unutmak mı, asimilâsyon mu? Turkiye'nin egitim sisteminde
azınlıklar, http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=409&DilId=1
3Ibid.
4 The (-) sign in the Table indicates that there is no kindrgarten,
primary school or liceum (high school) in the given school.
5 Data provided by Silva Kuyumjian, Principal of the Istanbul
Getronagan High School, point to the gradual, and unfortunately,
steady decline of Istanbul Armenian school students over the last ten
years. These data in accordance with academic years are as follows:
2000-2001 - 3,711 students, 2001-2002 - 3,530, 2002-2003 - 3,401,
2003-2004 - 3,289, 2004-2005 - 3,210, 2005-2006 - 3,162, 2006-2007 -
3,099, 2007-2008 - 3,023, 2008-2009 - 3,045, 2009-2010 - 3029 [4,
p. 47].
6 http://www.news.am/arm/news/52487.html
7 Ibid.
8 Ziflioglu V., Ermeni Azınlık Okullarında Karma Evliliklerden İlk
Jenerasyonhttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=armenian-schools-open-doors-to-a-di
fferent-audience-2011-01-27
9 Ibid.
References and Literature
1. Õ~@Õ¡Õµ Õ~MO~CÕµÕ¸O~BÕ¼O~D Õ°Õ¡Õ¶O~@Õ¡Õ£Õ"Õ¿Õ¡O~@Õ¡Õ¶, ÔµO~@O~GÕ¡Õ¶,
2003: 2. Alkan M., Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e modernleÅ~_me surecinde
egitim istatistikleri, Tarihsel istatistikler dizisi, Devlet
İstatistik Kurumu, sayı 6.
3. Haydaroglu P., Osmanlı İmparatorlugunda yabancı okullar,
Ankara, 1990.
4. 4. Ô³Õ¸O~BÕµÕ¸O~BÕ´Õ³Õ¥Õ¡Õ¶ Õ~M., Ô±Õ¯Õ¶Õ¡O~@Õ¯ Õ´Õ¨`
Õ½Õ¿Õ¡Õ¶ÕºÕ¸O~BÕ¬Õ¡Õ°Õ¡Õµ Õ¾Õ¡O~@ÕªÕ¡O~@Õ¡Õ¶Õ¶Õ¥O~@Õ¸O~B
Õ"O~@Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶Õ¸O~BÕ©Õ¥Õ¡Õ¶, Õ~MÕ¿Õ¡Õ¶ÕºÕ¸O~BÕ¬, 2010: 5. Cumhuriyet
dönemi İstanbul istatistikleri, Egitim İstanbul I (İlk, Orta,
Lise, 1928 - 1996), İstanbul Kulliyatı, İstanbul, 1998.
6. Ozdogan G., Ustel F., KarakaÅ~_lı K., Kentel F., Turkiye'de
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7. T.C. Resmi Gazete, 8 Mart 2008, sayı: 26810.
8. Ô±Õ¯O...Õ½, 14,12, 2007: 9. Ô¼Õ¸O~DÕ´Õ¡Õ£ÕµÕ¸Õ¦ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Õ~O.,
Õ~MÕ¿Õ¡Õ´Õ¢Õ¸O~BÕ¬Õ" Õ°Õ¡ÕµÕ¯Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ¤ÕºO~@Õ¸O~AÕ¶Õ¥O~@Õ¨,
Â"Ô³Õ¬Õ¸Õ¢Õ¸O~BÕ½Â" Õ¾Õ¥O~@Õ¬Õ¸O~BÕ®Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ¿Õ¥Õ²Õ¥Õ¯Õ¡Õ£Õ"O~@,
ÔµO~@O~GÕ¡Õ¶, 2008, Õ©Õ"Õ¾ 3: 10. Agos, 11,10, 1996.
11. Kılıc R., Osmanlı Turkiye'sinde azınlık okulları (19.
yuzyıl), - http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=374&DilId=1
12. Unutmak mı, asimilâsyon mu? Turkiye'nin egitim sisteminde
azınlıklar, - http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=1&Id=409&DilId=1
13. http://www.news.am/arm/news/52487.html 14. Ziflioglu
V., Ermeni Azınlık Okullarında Karma Evliliklerden İlk
Jenerasyonhttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=armenian-schools-open-doors-to-a-di
fferent-audience-2011-01-27
Return
__________________________________________________ __________________________
Another materials of author * ON MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ORGANIZATION
OF THE ARMENIANS IN TURKEY[29.05.2012] * THE ISSUE OF THE ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE AND MODERN TENDENCIES OF TURKEY'S POLICY[14.05.2012] *
THE STUDY OF THE ISSUE OF ISLAMIZED ARMENIANS IN TURKEY: PROBLEMS
AND PROSPECTS[12.04.2012] * THE ISSUE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN
THE TURKISH PARLIAMENT [08.12.2011]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress