The episode of the appointment of the Board of Trustees of the Nareg Schools shows how unprofessional is the way the Cyprus Government handles issues relating to minorities, especially in the case of the Armenian minority, whose language erects a divide thus making it neccessary for the Government to either rely solely on the advice of the ELECTED representative of the community, or to seek the advice of individuals who are deemed to be friendly to it or to members of the ruling party. In this case the government unfortunately elected to persue the second option, totally disregarding the Office of the ELECTED representative of the community and relying on the advice and wishes of a handfull of people who happened to be close to the governing party or members of. People, whom it felt it could trust and whom it wanted to keep happy. Only the steadfastness of the ELECTED Representative, MR. Mahdessian, guided the whole matter to an acceptable compromise, to which the matter should not even have had to reach in the first place.
As for the actual appointees and the omposition of the Board, it depends what is required from the new Board. If the requirement is to fulfill certain factional onsiderations and the repayment of favours, then it is a horrible misjudgement. However, if the requirement is the formation of a working group which will direct and assist the director in her/his work and improve the schools, solve the persistent problems and attract more pupils, then I think it is a sincere and unbiased attempt of forming a workable team. The proposed head of the Board, Mr. Tashdjian has proved himself to be an able teacher, administrator and Director. He is someone who surely will be able to guide the work of the Board appropriately and for the betterment of the Schools. As for the rest of the Board members, from those whom I know, I cannot see anyone who should not have been there.
However, the main issue for me here is not the persons forming the Board, but the manner in which the school board is appointed and the manner in which the Government has behaved or better still misbehaved. As long as this community has an ELECTED and not appointed Representative, then the Government should have adhere to the norms and not try to upstage the Office of the Representative and uphold its authority and dignity. Come election day, the Representative will have to answer for his actions. After all, that’s why Governments are elected in the first place and not appointed. And their authority is derived from the balot box. So is the Representative’s.

I totally agree with Jean, in-fact I dont blame the individuals whose advise the gov. sought, unless they sought to advise the government.

In either case, I blame the government and although I fully understand and agree with Mr.Mahdessian’s reasons for a compromise, I don’t like it. Let’s hope this is not the beginning of the end of our school’s autonomy.

The bad thing about this, is that people are trying to take a revenge on previous situations. Forget about the past! Let’s see what we can do about the future and the coming generations. Let’s build confidence in the community so that parents send their children to Nareg. Let’s help the teachers, Headmistress and newly-appointed Board to achieve higher standards for the school. We have to cling on to Nareg “Me nikhia kai me dontia”. It is our last resort. Our last castle. If we don’t manage it well, it could very well follow the example of Melkonian, if student numbers drop in coming years. Afterall, the Government will not be blamed for closing a school, when they have an example in front of them, of an Armenian organization closing down its own school in Cyprus…

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