Rizokarpaso, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman visited the Greek Cypriot middle school in Rizokarpaso on Wednesday, meeting pupils and teachers from that school and the town’s Greek Cypriot primary school. He later visited the town’s Turkish Cypriot Recep Tayyip Erdogan middle school.
Meetings with school leaders
Erhurman’s office said on Thursday that he met Greek Cypriot primary school headteacher Katerina Ktisti and Greek Cypriot middle school headteacher Elias Evripidou. It said both thanked him for his visit, and that the middle school presented him with a gift.
Comments on education in Karpasia and Limassol
Last month, Erhurman said “the right to education for our children in Karpasia is extremely important to me” when asked about criticism of Turkish Cypriot authorities regarding the provision of education at the north’s Greek Cypriot schools. He said, “Whatever needs to be done will be done.”
He said ensuring the right to education of Greek Cypriot children in Karpasia would not depend on the Greek Cypriot side “reciprocating,” while calling on the Republic of Cyprus to allow the opening of a Turkish language school in Limassol.
“The right to education for Turkish Cypriot children living in Limassol is just as important as that of our children in Karpasia. They are also our children, and I will continue to be assertive on this matter,” he said. He added that “protecting the rights to education of children in both Karpasia and Limassol is one of the most important humanitarian dimensions of the solution process”.
European Parliamentary research service report
A report compiled by the European Parliamentary research service said there was “the violation of the human rights” of Greek Cypriot schoolchildren in Rizokarpaso, and argued that “fundamental individual, educational, and religious freedoms continue to be restricted” by the Turkish Cypriot authorities.
The report referred to the Third Vienna agreement, signed by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and interim president Glafcos Clerides in August 1975, which set out terms for population exchanges and the continued residence of Greek Cypriots who wished to remain in the north after 1974.
The report said the agreement “provided for the assurance of dignified living conditions” for Greek Cypriots who remain in the north, “including uninterrupted education, access to medical and pharmaceutical care, and the free exercise of their religious rights”.
What issues related to education rights in Karpasia and Limassol would you like to see addressed next?