Armenian Schools in Turkey to Receive New Textbooks, 80 Years Later

Armenian schools in Istanbul are to receive updated textbooks after a decision by Education Minister Nimet Çubukçu. The current textbooks have not been revised since the 1930s, reports the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Almost 24,000 books are to be distributed to students. Special permission is necessary to revise the content of the Armenian Language and Literature book, which has been the same since 1934. Minister Çubukçu broke a taboo by distributing new books to Armenian schools. Since books from the 1930s had been used in Armenian schools and their content had not been revised, all the schoolbooks were decades out of date.

Turkish and English CDs have been added to the updated schoolbooks, which were distributed for free. The biggest difficulty encountered in the revising was in the translation of books from Turkish into Armenian, because there were problems finding an interpreter with the capacity to make the translation.

The Turkish Armenian Minority Schools Teachers Fund, or TEAOV, worked to overcome this problem with the help of 80-year-old retired Armenian teachers. The hero behind the revising of the books is a member of Istanbul’s Armenian society, Varujan Turaç. Turaç, who is also a parent, has sent lots of letters to the ministry petitioning to renew the books.

Aram Kamburyan, TEAOV secretary since 1974, claimed that they had problems with the Education Ministry in 1998. “We wanted to update the science and math books at the very least. We asked to translate the books that are used in Turkish schools. But the publication of the books was halted because some translation mistakes were found.”