“Presently, Armenian community of Istanbul encounters many problems in terms of rundown of Armenian schools, Constantinople Patriarch’s elections and other issues,” Turkish studies expert Ruben Melkonyan said at the Jan. 29 press conference.

According to him, the community can be divided into three groups. First — those indifferent to national issues, second – provident and adaptable Armenians, afraid of voicing their opinion. “The third, smallest group comprises those actively participating in community’s life, yet not playing key role in solution to communal problems,” expert stated, adding that existence of such a thin Armenian community has been in jeopardy within last years.

“The community reduced due to cross marriages making 40%. Presently only 50.000-60.000 Christian Armenians live in Istanbul against previous 250.000-300.000 community. The number of Armenian schools in the city decreased dramatically reaching 32, of which function only 17. Though, some of them might shut down in near future due to a low-numbered Armenian schoolchildren,” Melkonyan underlined, saying that currently there are about 3.000 Armenian pupils in Istanbul.

A.G.