11/22/2021 Turkey (International Christian Concern) – Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey’s parliament, submitted a proposal to increase resources for minority schools. Paylan submitted the proposal to the Planning and Budget Committee for 2022 but it was rejected.
During his submission, Paylan noted that the funding would be for minority schools of Armenians, Greeks and Jews. He justified the 40 million TL request citing that the Ministry of Education spent 10 to 12 thousand per student and 4,000 students attend minority schools. Paylan commented, “We propose increasing the budget for minority schools. I am sure that both the Minister and the AKP deputies, who claim that there is justice and equality, will support our proposal and minority schools will get their due from the budget in this country.”
The proposal was rejected by deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Erdogan and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) that is associated with the Grey Wolves. The IYI Party and CHP deputies abstained from voting.
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