Minister Tekin's striking statement on the future of French schools: 'We do not accept it'

Minister Tekin attended the 2nd International Symposium on Teaching Turkish as a Heritage and Foreign Language (ISOHTEL 2024), organized within the scope of the Language Tree Project supported by the Turkish National Agency and the European Union. 

Speaking at the event held at Istanbul Bilgi University's Santralistanbul Campus, Tekin stated that they are requesting support for teaching the Turkish language and culture to the children of Turkish citizens living in many countries, especially in Europe.

Tekin made statements regarding French schools during his speech here.

"NO LEGAL BASIS"

Tekin said, "We initiated a process during the summer months. We shared the legal process regarding foreign schools in our country with the public. I would like to briefly summarize the process regarding France and French schools as an example in this sense. In Turkey, we have minority schools that provide education regarding the learning of their own languages and cultures by minorities, which stems from the Treaty of Lausanne and which we recognize in the context of fundamental rights and freedoms in Lausanne.

After Lausanne, there are foreign schools whose legitimacy and legality we accepted with the letters of Lausanne. There are also schools established in Turkey since the 1940s belonging to certain countries, and France is one of them. These schools have no legal basis.

They also consist overwhelmingly of Turkish citizens, that is, Turkish children. This is a problem in terms of our domestic law. In other words, according to our legislation, our Constitution, and our laws, Turkish citizens and Turkish children in Turkey can only attend schools established by Turks or they will attend official state schools. Options other than this are not legal," he said.

Stating that they have made a call to these foreign schools, Tekin said, "We said that we need to bring your schools into a legal status, or you will not accept Turkish students other than foreign students."

Noting that the way to achieve this legal status is through an international agreement, Tekin continued as follows:

"In other words, if we make an international agreement, these schools would gain legal status because it is in a position above the laws in terms of Turkey's domestic law. But in return for this, we want you to make a commitment that Turkish children and Turkish citizens in your country will take Turkish language and Turkish culture courses.

You will offer facilities regarding them. This is exactly where the discussion arises. Those countries said that they could not take steps on this issue by referencing their own legal legislation. We, by referencing our own legal legislation, said then unfortunately you cannot accept Turkish students in these schools; we do not accept their legitimacy or legality."

Stating that the reason for the public debate regarding these schools is exactly the issues discussed at this meeting, Tekin said, "Especially regarding Turkish children in Europe learning Turkish and Turkish culture, which is an area already protected by international law.

We are talking about an area referred to in all international texts and all human rights texts as the right to mother tongue; we are not actually asking for anything different.

Our negotiations on this are currently continuing. The reason I am explaining this is that if we can conclude these negotiations and sign the international agreement, we will have guaranteed these rights of our Turkish citizens living abroad," he expressed.