Turkey, Re-Entering the 19th Century

"This is no less than a revolution to alter public education and assure that a conservative, religious view of the world prevails."
"The reason Turkey is not Pakistan is that generations have been exposed to a secular public education. But for Erdogan, who comes from the other side of the tracks and feels religion was marginalized for decades, this is his revenge."
Soner Cagaptay, director, Turkish Research Program, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

"Turkish school students are currently taught to value Western civilization."
"[The new changes demonstrate that] Turkey is changing its direction and is no longer, by default, a Western state."
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, Impact-se research institute, Jerusalem

'The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that's what the government fears' (file image) REUTERS/Umit Bektas

"You go and give an 18-year old student the right to elect and be elected, but don't give him the right to learn about the theory of evolution...This is being close minded and ignorant."
Mustafa Balbay, opposition Republican People's Party

"[The decision to exclude the theory of evolution was] because it is above the students' level and not directly relevant."
"It is also our duty to fix what has been perceived as wrong. This is why the Islamic law class and basic fundamental religion lectures will include [lessons on] jihad. The real meaning of jihad is loving your nation."
"Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the Education Ministry is to teach every concept deservedly, in a correct way. It is also our job to correct things that are wrongly perceived, seen or taught."
"In this manner, in the lessons on Islamic law and basic religion sciences, there will be [the concept of] jihad. But what is this jihad? What our Prophet [Muhammad] says is that while returning from a war, we are going from a small jihad to a big jihad. What is this big jihad? It is to serve our society, to increase welfare, to ensure peace in society, to serve the society’s needs. The easiest thing is to wage war, to fight. The skill is the difficult one, which is to ensure peace and tranquility."
Ismet Yilmaz, Turkish Minister of Education

"The new policies that ban the teaching of evolution and requiring all schools to have a prayer room, these actions destroy the principle of secularism and the scientific principles of education."
"The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that's what the government fears."
Mehhmet Balik, chairman, Union of Education and Science Workers, Turkey

Objections to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's initiatives in leading Turkey to a bold new direction in line with his favourite motto: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...", are rife. But how else to make faithful soldiers of the upcoming generation than to starve their minds of enquiry and force-feed them the duty of jihad, since after all, it does represent a major tenet of the Koran?

Elementary school children will now have their curricula enriched with the new religion classes where teachers must promote jihad as "love of homeland". Where's the violence in that? It will evolve; they have but to witness how their president-for-life, the noble, regal, honourable Khalif  Erdogan has decreed that dissent, questioning the Koran, much less the will of the president, is punishable by swift and violent repercussions as he defends Islam through jihad.

And high school students? The closing of their minds will henceforth proceed with new textbooks absenting the Darwinian theory of evolution from biology classes. Reckless critics of the forward-looking Justice and Development Party observe an overhaul of over 170 topics the once-secular education system covered in line with its Western orientation. But the 1920s modernization of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is now in full backlash mode, returning it to the days of the Ottoman Empire.

Since the failed military coup of the summer before last, that event itself has become a new topic to be studied by Turkey's students as "a legendary, heroic story". The July 2015 coup attempt led to the summary firing of over 33,000 teachers throughout Turkey. The hundreds of schools that were closed, linked to the Gulenist movement have further impoverished the minds of future Turkish students.

While the Turkish political opposition may be furious at this turn of events, Turks themselves gifted Erdogan with the very special powers he is now using.

The presence of religious schools have proliferated in lock-step with the closure of secular-based education systems. The imam hatip schools indoctrinating Turkish students with the refurbished Turkish Islamist values are more than prepared to promote Erdogan's goal to raise a "pious generation" of education-deficient Turks.

Minister Yılmaz has helpfully pointed out that the new curriculum will also include topics on the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Not that the Turkish government initially supported ISIL, nor that Turkey's Kurds are struggling to achieve sovereignty for their persecuted people, or that Fethullah Gulen is a former colleague and a loyal Turk.

Darwin’s theory of evolution has been excluded from the most recent draft of Turkey’s new national curriculum, which will be released following the Eid al-Fitr holiday  Hurriyet Daily News

“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...”
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