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Türkiye's Foreign Ministry condemned Greece on Sunday for ordering the closure of eight Turkish minority primary schools in Western Thrace, accusing Athens of using low enrollment figures as a pretext to systematically dismantle the community's educational infrastructure.
Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli announced the condemnation via a post on X, stating that the closures would reduce the number of Turkish minority primary schools in the region to 76.
"We condemn Greece's decision to close eight Turkish minority primary schools in Western Thrace under the pretext of insufficient student numbers," Keceli said.
Keceli said the closures, along with newly reported obstacles to first-grade enrollment at the No. 1 Turkish Minority Primary School in Xanthi, constituted violations of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the foundational international agreement that established the rights of the Turkish Muslim minority in Western Thrace and the Greek Orthodox minority in Istanbul following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The treaty, signed at the close of the Greco-Turkish War, remains the principal legal instrument governing minority protections in both countries, and disputes over its interpretation have periodically strained bilateral relations for decades.
Keceli described the enrollment barriers at the Xanthi school as "another example of systematic practices aimed at eroding the educational rights of the Western Thrace Turkish minority," framing the closures not as administrative decisions but as part of a broader pattern of rights restrictions.
Türkiye called on Greece to comply with rulings by international courts that have identified violations of the community's rights, as well as with recommendations issued by leading European institutions, which Ankara says Athens has so far declined to implement.
"We once again call on Greece to act in line with its treaty obligations regarding minority and fundamental human rights," Keceli said, adding that Türkiye "will continue to resolutely support the struggle of the Western Thrace Turkish minority for their rights."
The Western Thrace Turkish minority numbers approximately 100,000 to 150,000 people, concentrated in the northeastern Greek region bordering Türkiye and Bulgaria.
The community, predominantly Muslim, has long raised concerns about restrictions in education, religious affairs, and political representation, grievances that Athens disputes. Greece, in turn, has raised parallel concerns regarding the treatment of its own Orthodox Christian minority in Istanbul.
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