Turkey Reverses Decision Barring Children From Armenia From Istanbul’s Armenian Schools

INTERVIEW: For 14 years, children from Armenia living in Turkey have been allowed to attend Istanbul’s Armenian community schools under a special “guest student” system, giving them access to an Armenian education even though, as foreign citizens, they cannot enroll on the same terms as members of Turkey’s Armenian community.

That arrangement was thrown into uncertainty this month when inspectors from Turkey’s Ministry of National Education visited Armenian schools and told administrators that Armenian citizens could no longer be accepted as guest students. Schools were also told that children already enrolled under the system would have to transfer to Turkish public or private schools, according to Agos journalist İşhan Erdinç, who has been reporting on the inspections.

The instructions alarmed families and Armenian community leaders and raised questions about why a system that had operated for more than a decade was suddenly being challenged.

The immediate threat now appears to have passed.

On Aug. 26, ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, lawmaker Sevan Sıvacıoğlu told Agos that he had spoken with Turkey’s Ministry of National Education and that students from Armenia would be allowed to continue their education where they left off, Erdinç told The Armenian Report in an interview.

The controversy centers on an unusual legal arrangement created in 2012.

At the time, a significant number of Armenian citizens had moved to Turkey for work and wanted their children to attend the Armenian schools operating in Istanbul. But those schools are minority institutions established primarily for Turkey’s historic Armenian community, and children who were citizens of the Republic of Armenia did not have the same enrollment rights.

Turkey’s Private Education Institutions Regulation provided a workaround.

Article 51 allowed minority schools to accept foreign nationals as “guest students,” depending on available space. The students could attend classes alongside their classmates but could not receive diplomas. Instead, the schools issued documents showing the courses they had taken and the grades they had earned.

Armenian schools began using the provision to educate children from Armenia. Similar arrangements allowed foreign Greek students to attend Greek minority schools and Jewish students holding citizenship from countries such as Spain and Portugal to attend Jewish schools.

The arrangement solved one problem without resolving the students’ legal status.

For Armenian families, it meant their children could study in an Armenian environment while living in Turkey. But because they remained guest students, their education did not result in the same diploma available to regularly enrolled students.

Despite that limitation, the system continued for 14 years.

About 50 students from Armenia attended Armenian schools in Istanbul during the previous academic year, according to figures Erdinç cited to The Armenian Report.

That longstanding practice was suddenly called into question about two weeks ago.

Erdinç said Education Ministry auditors arrived at Armenian schools carrying lists of Armenian citizens who had attended the schools. Some of the names dated back as far as a decade.

The inspectors asked principals about the former students’ current whereabouts and status. They also verbally informed administrators that new students from Armenia could no longer be registered and that those already attending would have to move to public or private schools.

Administrators were told that Armenian schools should educate only students belonging to Turkey’s Armenian community, Erdinç said.

The inspections were not limited to Armenian schools.

School administrators told Erdinç that Greek and Jewish minority schools were also visited. Greek citizens attending Greek schools and Jewish students holding Spanish or Portuguese citizenship faced the same restrictions.

The reason for the apparent policy shift was not explained to school officials.

“The school administrators and principals I spoke with do not know why this decision was taken,” Erdinç told The Armenian Report.

The development was particularly striking because it came as Turkey and Armenia continue a normalization process aimed at improving relations between the neighboring countries.

Former Agos editor-in-chief Rober Koptaş criticized the move as reports of the inspections emerged, saying families were being placed in a painful situation by the possible loss of an arrangement the Turkish government itself had created more than a decade earlier.

Koptaş argued that the underlying legal problem could have been addressed through an administrative change rather than by removing children from the schools they already attended.

After years without a permanent solution, he said, authorities appeared to be addressing the problem through the harshest possible intervention, one that risked “opening new wounds.”

For at least one Armenian family in Istanbul, the prospect of losing access to an Armenian school was serious enough to reconsider remaining in Turkey.

Erdinç said he spoke with a mother from Armenia who has lived in Istanbul for 14 years and has two children attending an Armenian school. She learned about the inspections through media reports and became concerned that her children would be forced to leave.

The mother said her children were happy at their school and that she did not want them studying outside the Armenian school system. If the issue was not resolved, she told Erdinç, the family would consider returning to Armenia.

Erdinç said the guest-student system has also served a broader role over the past 14 years by bringing children from Armenia into daily contact with members of Istanbul’s historic Armenian community.

As concern grew, Armenian community institutions began discussing the issue. Armenian Patriarch of Turkey Sahak Maşalyan was informed of the developments, and representatives of Armenian foundations met to address the inspections.

The issue was discussed again at an Aug. 25 meeting attended by Maşalyan, Armenian foundation leaders and Sıvacıoğlu. The AKP lawmaker said he would raise the matter with Turkey’s education minister, according to Erdinç.

A day later, Sıvacıoğlu told Agos that he had spoken with the ministry and that children from Armenia would be able to continue their education where they left off.

For families who had spent two weeks wondering whether their children would have to leave their schools, the announcement provided immediate relief.

It did not, however, change the underlying system. Armenian citizens remain guest students rather than regular students and still cannot receive diplomas under the arrangement that has governed their education for 14 years.

The episode has again exposed a question that the guest-student system was designed to work around, but never permanently as resolved: how Turkey’s minority schools should educate children who share their language and heritage but do not hold Turkish citizenship