Turkish Government passed a bill to close 13 (1 Armenian, 12 Greek) schools for national minorities in the country, Haberaktuel reports.

Thus, the number of national minority schools decreased from 34 to 21.

Head of National Education Department of Istanbul reasoned this decision by decreasing number of students. According to him, the maintenance of schools was unprofitable, as the directors and teachers of the schools with no students got wages. While now the state budget will save 1.3 million liras (US $1m).