Melkonian students threatened with expulsion
Phileleftheros daily – Thursday, March 18, 2004

 By Christina Kyriakidou

NICOSIA - Melkonian students are facing the risk of being expelled, according to Masis der Parthogh, the vice president of the school’s Alumni Association.

In statements he made to this newspaper, Mr. der Parthogh argued that officials of the Armenian General Benevolent Union based in New York, have sent warning messages that they would expel any school children who take part in any activities or demonstrations opposed to the Melkonian’s closure.

The same students, however, seem fearless of any repercussions as yesterday and the day before they stayed away from classes. Furthermore, they are getting ready to take part in a large demonstration on Wednesday organized by the Alumni and the Parents Association. As said by the vice president of the Alumni, whose daughter is also a student at the school, the children have lost their will to attend classes, as they know that in fifteen months’ time, their school will be shut down. He added, however, that the Armenian community of Cyprus will not give up so easily and is resorting to use every legal means possible to overturn the decision made by the AGBU a few days ago.

Meanwhile, according to our information, the Alumni Association recently sent a letter to the Presidential Palace, protesting the fact that the agency that is handling the public relations for AGBU, has strong ties to a leading political state official.

As reported earlier, the Union’s decision is to terminate the Melkonian’s operations in June 2005, with the excuse that “the educational institute no longer corresponds to the challenges within the parameters of the present day mission of the Armenian people.”

Also, one of the rumoured scenarios is for the Boarding House to close in June 2005 and the Melkonian to continue as a day school for Armenian Cypriots. This will result in the student body dropping from 206 today to only 60 (as the remainder come from foreign countries and until now reside in the boarding house). Based on the projections of the community, the drastic reduction of the number of students will lead to a final closure of the school and sale of the 125,000 sq.m. of land that comprises this property.

(Translated from Greek)