(Kathimerini) Greece’s Foreign Ministry has issued a terse response to allegations from Turkey regarding the closure of four minority primary schools in the northeastern province of Thrace, which Ankara claims constitutes a violation of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne provisions safeguarding the rights of Muslims in the area.
“Ankara is regrettably once again turning reality on its head in order to put forward positions which are unsubstantiated. We reject them through and through,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexandros Papaioannou said on Saturday.
Papaioannou said that Greek authorities decided to suspend the schools’ operation because they did not meet the minimum required number of nine pupils. He said a total of 29 non-minority primary schools had been closed for failing to meet the same standard.
