Melkonian alumni hire California lawyers to fight school’s closure
By Staff Reporter
Cyprus Mail
1 Sept 04
THE worldwide alumni of the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI)
have hired a group of California lawyers to challenge the closure of
the Nicosia-based secondary school, they said yesterday.
Under their recently established umbrella body, the Melkonian Alumni
and Friends, a non-profit US foundation, the alumni have hired legal
counsel MacCarley & Rosen of Los Angeles to oppose the planned closure
of the 78-year old Armenian school in June 2005.
This alumni is working in parallel with the local Melkonian Alumni
Associations in Cyprus, Greece, the UK, Canada, the US, Armenia,
Lebanon, Australia and elsewhere.
Similar legal actions are also expected to be filed in Cyprus, as
well as other jurisdictions, a statement issued yesterday said.
The loss making MEI, which is sitting on 40 acres of prime real estate
worth around £40 million in the capitalâ’s commercial district,
has been slated to close next year by the New York based Armenian
General Benevolent Union (AGBU), which administers 22 Armenian
schools worldwide.
The AGBU said last November that the school was not for sale but then
changed tack and announced the closure three months later.
Teachers at the Melkonian have said that last year the school’s
population was reduced from 260 to 210 after the AGBU unilaterally
decided to reduce scholarships to underprivileged children from the
Armenian Diaspora.
By claiming that standards are not up so scratch, staff say the AGBU
is trying to use the them as a scapegoat for their decision to close
the school in order to sell the land and that they are using devious
methods to reduce the student population of the school in order to
turn it into a non-viable school and ultimately to close it.
“The MEI has educated and nurtured more than three generations
of Armenian professionals and leaders and is a unique educational
institution in the Armenian Diaspora,” said yesterday.
“It provides superior academic training with Western standards to
a diverse group of Armenian boys and girls from different countries
and social backgrounds.”