Turkey’s paranoia over the Gülen movement has reached new heights with the government banning mathematics textbooks due to questions involving the initials of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
“A textbook was banned just because it features Gülen’s initials in a practice question that reads: ‘… from point F to point G …’. It has become a paranoia. Public money is being squandered,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Osman Budak told the Sözcü daily.
Textbooks that the government has destroyed over their allegedly harmful content weigh 13,000 tons and cost TL 50 million ($16 million), Budak said.
The allegedly harmful content is not limited to that related to the Gülen movement as an English-language textbook was also banned because Kemalist actor Müjdat Gezen was mentioned in the book, Budak added.
Since the Turkish government pinned the blame for a July 15 coup attempt on the movement, police have been presenting seized copies of books written by Gülen as evidence of terrorism.
In September Turkey’s Education Ministry said it would republish 58 state-distributed textbooks in order to eliminate any subliminal messages from what the government calls the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).
The same month Turkey’s Sivas University pulled off the shelf of its libraries all copies of books written by Gülen and his alleged supporters and destroyed them with a shredder.
Also, license plates including the letters “FG” have already been removed from vehicles belonging to the Denizli Courthouse. (Turkey Purge)
