With approval earlier this year from Turkish officials for the reopening of a Greek minority school on the island of Imvros, which the Turks call Gökçeada, Greeks are hoping their brethren will come back.
The bell in the Greek school will ring again after 47 years after a license granted by the Turkish authorities to St. Theodori (Zeytinli in Turkish), the village where the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was born.
The Turkish government had banned the operation of Greek Schools in Imvros 49 years ago, in 1964, a period of escalating tensions in Greek-Turkish relations, because of the Cyprus issue.
The Imvrian Unions of abroad welcomed the decision of the Turkish government, which the group said partially corrects injustices. The representative of the Non-Muslim Minorities in the General Directorate of Foundations in Turkey, Pantelis Vingas, called Imvrians to repatriate.
Vingas told the newspaper Sabah that the Imvrians who have immigrated to Greece, Australia, U.S.A, France, and even to South Africa, should now return back to their homes. “Behold, the school has opened. The island waits for you,” Vingas said. The Greek state had been pushing for decades for the school’s re-opening.
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