Turkey bans math textbooks due to questions including Gülen’s initials


Date posted: October 9, 2016

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)

Source: Turkish Minute , October 6, 2016


Related News

Deviation, crisis and opportunities…

The recent crisis going on between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and the Hizmet movement is indeed not just a struggle between the two actors. It means much more than that. This fight represents a struggle between democracy and autocracy, freedom and oppression and a harmonious society and a polarized society.

Post-Kemalist Turkey and the Gülen Movement

The Gülen Movement was known for the cool-headed decisions it took at the risk of severe criticism during Turkey’s most difficult times. Today, it would be expected that the same movement will display a similar rationality in a changing Turkey.

Erdoğan now at odds with once-closest ally

Those who have an interest in Turkish politics may have been a little confused for the last few weeks, observing the row between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government and the social movement of religious scholar Fethullah Gülen, or the “Hizmet” (Service) movement as they preferred to be called. The row is over the closure of private prep schools (“dershane” in Turkish).

Latin American firms seek Turkey investments at TUSKON meet

A total of 80 businesspeople from 10 Latin American countries met in Turkey’s Kayseri province on Tuesday to discuss investment and trade opportunities with local counterparts in a new “trade bridge” event held by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON).

Should the Hizmet movement form a political party?

Despite the image some have tried to create, we have been writing that the Justice and Development (AKP) and the Hizmet movement are two different entities. One of them is a political party and the other is a faith-based civil society actor. They have, of course, been on the same page with regard to many […]

Should I not respond to those who want to strangle me?

HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE The move to close down prep schools is getting complicated. Things are going out of hand, and the discussions over this serious education issue are becoming less serious and more irrelevant. A Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy who is also a member of the education commission made a horrible remark comparing […]

Latest News

Sacramento leaders gather for Iftar dinner in celebration of Ramadan

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

In Case You Missed It

IFJ representative denied permission to visit journalist Karaca in prison

Gülen resorts to UN to investigate Turkey’s coup

The Hizmet Community

New Level of Witch Hunt: Relatives are Targeted in Turkey

The philosophical and intellectual contest “Know Thyself” held in Bishkek

Turkish businesswomen building orphanage in Burundi

Rumi Fellowship Program 2016

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News