Turkey’s schools are requiring non-Muslim schoolchildren and particularly Armenian children to submit a baptism document to be exempt from the lessons on Islam. According to Bianet, the parents and representatives of Armenian children don’t understand why the children are required to submit a baptism document when their passport cards show that they are Christian.

Despite the news, the Department of Education of Beyoglu has denied news about such a requirement for schoolchildren, writes Ermenihaber.am.

There was a similar incident last year at the Karagyozyan School in Shishli. The school administration had dismissed one of the schoolchildren, stating that the child lacked a baptism document and was not Armenian. However, the court examining the case had rendered a decision stating that the dismissed person could continue her studies at the Armenian school since the religion field in the child’s passport card was marked “Chrisitan”. The court had ruled that failure to admit the child to the school was a violation of the law since the child’s identity could be clarified based on the data in the passport.

Deputy of Turkey’s oppositional Democratic Party of Nations (HDP) from Izmir, Ertughrul Kyurkchu has introduced the issue of requiring baptism documents from Armenian schoolchildren into the agenda of the Turkish Mejlis. Kyurkchu has submitted a special inquiry regarding the issue with the hope for a response from Minister of National Education Ismet Yilmaz.

The Member of Parliament has particularly tried to clarify the extent to which that action against Christian schoolchildren is justified and whether there is such an order that the ministry has given to the principals of all schools or not. Kyurkchu also asked the Minister of National Education whether the ministry doesn’t consider the requirement of the schools’ representatives a violation of the rights of the schoolchildren, and if the Ministry of National Education is not aware of these incidents, the steps it has taken to examine the incidents.