Turkish Culture Minister broke a taboo by distributing new books to Armenian schools

October 5, 2010 - 14:12 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian schools in Istanbul will receive updated textbooks according to a decision by Education Minister Nimet Cubukcu.

The current textbooks have not been revised since the 1930s.

Almost 24,000 books are to be distributed to students. Special permission is necessary to revise the content of the Armenian Language and Literature book, which has been the same since 1934.

Minister Cubukcu broke a taboo by distributing new books to Armenian schools. Since books from the 1930s had been used in Armenian schools and their content had not been revised, all the schoolbooks were decades out of date, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Turkish and English CDs have been added to the updated schoolbooks, which were distributed for free.

The biggest difficulty encountered in the revising was in the translation of books from Turkish into Armenian, because there were problems finding a specialist with the capacity to make the translation.