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ARMENIANS TO BUILD SCHOOL IN ISTANBUL
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 21 2012
Turkey
The Armenian community in Turkey has received authorization to build
its first school in Istanbul's Bakırköy district, to be completed
to house the historical Armenian Dadyan School within two years.
The community will build the school with their own funding in addition
to monetary aid from the Bakırköy Municipality. The school, which
is expected to cost 4.5 billion Turkish Liras, will be constructed
on 1,750 square meters of land. The foundation of the school was laid
on Nov. 18.
Speaking to the Hurriyet Daily News, Bakırköy Surp Asdvazsazsin
Church Foundation Executive Board Chair Mesut Ozdemir said they were
very pleased to have obtained the proper authorization after 10 years
of attempts.
"During the period of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government, many steps have been taken in support of us. Now we can
build a school," Ozdemir said.
Istanbul has an official Armenian population of 50,000, with 12
Armenian schools. Ozdemir said another school was necessary. "We
received some criticisms over it; however, the current school building
is 166 years old and it is quite small. We have 400 students there and
we want them to receive a modern education in a building that complies
with today's standards. More importantly, since the school building is
historical, restoration is strictly forbidden. So we could not build
additional classrooms there. Consequently, we needed a new building."
Even though the title of the land on which they would build the new
school belonged to the Armenian community, it has been used by the
municipality for years. "We could not claim the land as it was being
used by the municipality as a green area but now they returned it to
us," Ozdemir said, adding that the new building would be completed
within two years and would serve as the new building of the Dadyan
School. Some projects have been developed to preserve the old building
as well.
The historical Dadyan School was built by the order of Sultan Selim
III during the Ottoman period. Nubar Manavyan, who is planning the
new building project, said, "We developed a plan taking the structure
of the historical school building into consideration. It will be a
modern school occupying over 1,750 square meters of land. It will
have 16 classrooms, a kindergarten, an indoor sports hall, a library
and a conference hall with 220-person capacity, which will meet the
requirements of the new educational system."
November/21/2012
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/armenians-to-build-school-in-istanbul.aspx?pageID=238&nID=35099&NewsCatID=339
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 21 2012
Turkey
The Armenian community in Turkey has received authorization to build
its first school in Istanbul's Bakırköy district, to be completed
to house the historical Armenian Dadyan School within two years.
The community will build the school with their own funding in addition
to monetary aid from the Bakırköy Municipality. The school, which
is expected to cost 4.5 billion Turkish Liras, will be constructed
on 1,750 square meters of land. The foundation of the school was laid
on Nov. 18.
Speaking to the Hurriyet Daily News, Bakırköy Surp Asdvazsazsin
Church Foundation Executive Board Chair Mesut Ozdemir said they were
very pleased to have obtained the proper authorization after 10 years
of attempts.
"During the period of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government, many steps have been taken in support of us. Now we can
build a school," Ozdemir said.
Istanbul has an official Armenian population of 50,000, with 12
Armenian schools. Ozdemir said another school was necessary. "We
received some criticisms over it; however, the current school building
is 166 years old and it is quite small. We have 400 students there and
we want them to receive a modern education in a building that complies
with today's standards. More importantly, since the school building is
historical, restoration is strictly forbidden. So we could not build
additional classrooms there. Consequently, we needed a new building."
Even though the title of the land on which they would build the new
school belonged to the Armenian community, it has been used by the
municipality for years. "We could not claim the land as it was being
used by the municipality as a green area but now they returned it to
us," Ozdemir said, adding that the new building would be completed
within two years and would serve as the new building of the Dadyan
School. Some projects have been developed to preserve the old building
as well.
The historical Dadyan School was built by the order of Sultan Selim
III during the Ottoman period. Nubar Manavyan, who is planning the
new building project, said, "We developed a plan taking the structure
of the historical school building into consideration. It will be a
modern school occupying over 1,750 square meters of land. It will
have 16 classrooms, a kindergarten, an indoor sports hall, a library
and a conference hall with 220-person capacity, which will meet the
requirements of the new educational system."
November/21/2012
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/armenians-to-build-school-in-istanbul.aspx?pageID=238&nID=35099&NewsCatID=339