Turkish children of Greece gain a voice

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http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/a...enewsid=101948

Turcophone children attending Western Thrace's Greek public middle schools finally have a book reflecting and voicing the realities of their own community. A new textbook called �Our Turkish book,� or Turkçe Kitabımız in Turkish, was completed nearly 10 days ago and is now under consideration at the Greek Ministry of Education. The advanced Turkish language handbook is unique for many reasons, said the authors of the new textbook.
First of all, it is the first time a book has been written by members of the Greek minority in Turkey and the Turkish minority in Greece. The latter, a community the Greek government has insisted on lumping together with other Muslims of the area and calling the Minority of Western Thrace.
�This is the first time that the members of the two countries' minorities worked together like this to prepare a common project that reflects the life of the minority of Western Thrace,� journalist and co-author of the book, Aydın Bostancı, told the Turkish Daily News. �No one indicated what we should do. All the texts we used were clearly our choice and we think it turned into something beautiful and unique that shows the daily realities of our lives in the form of a textbook,� he said.
The book was part of an initiative by the Greek Ministry of Education that began, 10 years ago, to meet the educational needs of Turcophone students studying in Greek public schools in Western Thrace. It is a compilation of literature, poems and texts drawing from the minority's intelligentsia. Professor Herkül Milas from the University of Athens was tasked with heading a team of authors to write and compile a textbook to act as a supplement to current language instruction textbooks. There are also minority status schools that receive their textbooks from the Turkish Education Ministry. Although the book is not designed for those schools, Bostancı said it could also be used by them.
The difference, Milas told the TDN is that this book reflects the realities and cultural heritage of the Turkish minority of Thrace.
�It has five unique features. People from the minority wrote it, it draws on minority sources, it sites their own newspapers and magazines, it has images from their own heritage and it voices their concerns, complaints, problems and issues,� Milas said yesterday. Milas is one of Turkey's ethnic Greeks, called Rum. Over the course of a year-and-a-half he worked with Dimos Yiağcioğlu, also a Rum, and Bostancı, Evren Dede, Koray Hasan and Tuncay Balta from the Turkish minority of Western Thrace.
The book has been discussed in the Greek daily Kathimerini, as well as in the Turkish daily Milliyet this week, both of which welcomed the book that seeks to finally give a voice to a people whose culture and identity have been clouded by misinformation and legal issues. Just last week, the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in the cases of two associations that wanted to use the word �Turkish� to identify themselves, calling on the Greek government to allow their establishment.
In an article published by the Greek daily Kathimerini Sunday, titled �My child learns Turkish as well,� journalist Takis Kambilis described the following conversation between a 12-year-old boy named Ilhan and his father:
�Dad what am I?� asked the boy. �When you are alone, you are a Turk, my child,� answered the father. �When you are with other Turks, then you are a �Muslim of Thrace.'�
The textbook's authors hope that this book will help children voice their concerns and that they will see themselves in the book, which covers a multitude of real life topics and uses images that reflect the minority's realities, headscarves and all.
�The book indirectly recognizes the existence of Greek citizens, who are accepted, with their own cultural identity, in a modern country and who have a say in their lives in practical terms,� Kathimerini quoted Milas as saying. �I believe this effort will strengthen the self-confidence of our compatriots and will help their integration in wider society.�
Bostancı, for his part, said the book was just a little late. "I wish when I was a student I had such a book of which I could say 'this is the life of our minority,'" he said.