"Childless Island Imroz” is Expecting Its Children

"It is very promising that the Turkish government allowed the opening of a new minority school in Gökçeada island's Zeytinli village. This has been the most exciting news in the latest 50 years of the island," Stelyo Berber, musician and chair of Protection, Solidairty, Improvement and Development Association of Gökçeada, told bianet.

Reminding Turkey's education minister's approval to re-open a minority school in Gökçeada (Imroz) island, Berber said: "The island was deprived if children for the past years after the Turkish state closed down a minority in 1964."

Berber denied various mainstream media's allegations that the school was closed down by its few founders.

"As far as islanders are concerned, the school was closed down by the state. In place like our island, nobody would close down a school that they founded.

“I should have been educated and raised in the island"

Reminding that the island's Greek population downsized since 1964, Berber said several children who were born and raised in the island had to leave to go to school.

"Children had to leave the island to have education in their mother tongue. We were also raised and educated in Istanbul.

"I am direct victim of this situation. Under normal circumstances, I should have also lived and gone to school in the island. Not have a school costed us a lot.

"People had to leave their land to learn their mother tongue. According to the law of nature, everybody must have the right to live wherever they belong to. We are taking about the blocking of natural order here.

"A society only become a real one with its people. Our island is a childless island for the past 40-50 years. Changing this now is an important step forward. (EKN)