Turkey opens first state school in Georgia's Batumi

BATUMI, Georgia

Turkey opened its first state-run school in Georgia's coastal city of Batumi on Monday.

The 24-classroom Batumi Turkish School, constructed with support from Galip Ozturk, the board chairman of Metro Holding Company, launched its educational activities on Monday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, education counselor at the Turkish embassy in Tblisi, Tufan Karadeniz, said the school would follow Turkish curriculum and be supervised by Turkey’s National Education Ministry.

Karadeniz said the school would be a "new life and a sigh of relief" for the Turkish citizens living in Batumi.

The Turkish Consul-General in Batumi Yasin Temizkan stressed the importance of the schools in the country.

"Our principles are obvious. Our flag is obvious. Our first teacher is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Our values are obvious. We do not need the opinions of any other ones. Let's raise our children and hand over our positions and our flag to them. Let our children take our country further."

FETO-linked schools in Batumi

More than 100 Turkish students dropped out of the Batumi Sahin Primary School and High School – linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization – and were registered at the state-run Batumi Turkish School instead, school headmaster Mehmet Kabakci told Anadolu Agency.

Turkish parents in Batumi also said that there had been no Turkish state-run school in Batumi before and that they had to send their children to Batumi Sahin Primary School and High School instead.

A Turkish parent Kenan Eminoglu said he had two children in the new Turkish school.

"National unity and solidarity is what lie behind a country. This is possible with a national education," Eminoglu said.

"Our [Turkish] nation protects these values. For that reason, I sent my children this [new] school," he added.

Turkey's government has repeatedly said the deadly coup plot on July 15, which martyred 240 people and injured some 2,200 others, was organized by followers of U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen -the head of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as "the parallel state".

*Reporting by Davit Kachkachishvili; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu