Race code procedure in court again

Last month, the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education had demanded the annulment of the registration of a 5-year old student that had been registered at an Armenian kindergarten stating, “The investigation of the student has revealed that the student does not belong to the Armenian race, and therefore it is not suitable to carry out the registration”. The student’s parent was baptized at the Armenian Patriarchate. Following this development, the parent filed a lawsuit against the decision.

İsmail Cem Halavurt, lawyer of the family, applied to the Istanbul Administrative Court demanded a suspension of execution regarding the procedure. Halavurt, in his lawsuit petition, pointed out that the procedure was in violation of the European Human Rights Convention and the Constitution, and referred to previous verdicts in similar cases, adding that there was no legal basis for the procedure.

Court had suspended procedure

In a similar case in 2013, the Ministry of National Education had prevented the registration of a student. The verdict of the Istanbul 25th Civil Court of First Instance issued in June 2014 referred to the Human Rights Convention and Article 42 of the Constitution and declared that everyone was entitled to the right to education.

The Istanbul 7th Administrative Court had ruled that the baptism document issued by the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey was sufficient to proceed with registration in Armenian schools.