Istanbul to host new Armenian school opening Sept 28

Istanbul to host new Armenian school opening Sept 28

PanARMENIAN.Net - Mesut Ozdemir, the chairman of the Surp Asdvadzadzin Church Foundation has one month left to achieve his life-long dream: to open a new school for the Armenian community in Istanbul, Anadoly Agency reports.

"I am very delighted to see the school is almost done. Moving to a new building after 171 years makes us all happy," Ozdemir told Anadolu Agency.

Construction on the project began three years ago. From the outside, it is not much different from other schools. Yet it is still unique: it is the first school that Istanbul’s Armenian community is building in Republican Turkey within a legal framework. The community opened schools in previous decades but these were dependent upon special permission granted by prime ministers.

There are 22 minority schools in Istanbul: five of them are Greek, one is Jewish, and the remaining 16 are Armenian. What made this latest project possible was a 2008 legal reform brought forward by the government and pushed through parliament.

In Turkey, the state partially aids students with financial difficulties so that they can enroll in private institutions. Minority schools are not categorized as ‘private’ institutions, but the government included them in the list, Ozdemir says. The new school has now more space to accommodate even more than 400 students. Ozdemir said the school now is able to offer a kindergarten service to the Armenian community: that will increase number of students to 500.

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