OVER 200 pupils from the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) walked out of their classes yesterday after hearing the news that their school was to be closed down in June next year.
During the spontaneous demonstration, the students chanted “Melkonian Not For Sale” at the main gate and in front of the founders’ mausoleum. They held placards condemning the sale and suggested this was a “second genocide”.
The news that the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), headquartered in New York, has decided to close the 78-year old school has prompted a rush of support from Armenians living abroad.
The 3,000-strong Armenian community in Cyprus are planning to stage a mass demonstration against the closure of the school on March 24, according to Shavasb Bohdjalian, who heads the school’s alumni.
“You cannot imagine the reaction, apart from Cyprus,” he told the Cyprus Mail yesterday. “There is a lot of anger and the assemblies in Europe and the US are trying to get the AGBU to reverse its decision. We are getting a lot of support.”
In an official announcement, the New York-based AGBU said that after “extensive deliberations and thorough assessment”, the Central Board had resolved unanimously to discontinue MEI in June 2005. This decision is based largely on the Board’s conclusion that MEI “no longer meets the challenges of its mission in the present context of the Armenian world.”
The AGBU administers 22 Armenian schools worldwide, including the Melkonian, which was founded in 1926 and is today the only secondary school in Cyprus for the Armenian community. It also serves dozens of other Armenian pupils that board there from neighbouring countries.
The alumni have sought legal advice from law firms in Cyprus and abroad and intend to incorporate international expertise to strengthen their defence as they move to contest the decision and block the AGBU’s plans to sell the school.
The loss-making Melkonian school is sitting on a £40 million plot in the capital’s commercial district. Reports have been rife that it is up for grabs by developers.
The AGBU initially denied this, and said in November that the school was not for sale. However, the alumni are not convinced and believe the foundation’s only aim is to “take the money and run”.
Since the controversy began, the Armenian community has managed to have the Melkonian declared a listed building and has persuaded the Forestry Department to file an application to declare the wooded area in the grounds as a protected forest.
Yesterday, the AGBU issued an eight-page statement detailing the reasons for its decision to close the school.
“MEI’s continuing deficit levels have been taken into consideration but have not been the primary issue of concern… AGBU has focused its attention on MEI’s recent educational performance and its current inability to fulfil a role similar to that which it fulfilled throughout the late 1960s,” it said. “If MEI’s current structure provided exceptional opportunities to its students as it had done in the past, substantial subsidization under those circumstances would be warranted.
Unfortunately this is not the case in spite of the diligent efforts of committed school board members, the principal and the teaching staff.”
Commenting on the statement, Bohdjalian said the AGBU was trying to justify its decision “and blame everyone except themselves”.
