Keyword: Turkey
AK Party’s social media instructions to ministries raise questions of legality
The Taraf daily reported on the written instructions sent in an email to social media coordinators at government ministries by the AK Party’s media coordinator, Burak Gültekin. The email read as follows: “Dear ministry social media coordinator, Attached please see a note on prep schools…” The attachment included templates for tweets some of which include content teasing the Hizmet movement and the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Debate over Turkish government move on prep schools grows
The debate over the Turkish government’s move to shut down private prep schools is growing with a battle of words between the administration and private education representatives. Self-exiled Islamic scholar Gülen, on the other hand, asked his followers “to be resolute and not yield to despair,” in a speech posted on herkul.org, a website that broadcasts his speeches.
Planned prep school ban [in Turkey] disregards basic rights as in single-party era
The government’s intentions to shut down private examination preparation centers [in Turkey] in spite of a strong backlash from educators, economists, students, parents and even terrorism experts brings back memories of the authoritarianism of the early years of the republic, when a single-party regime was in place.
Twitter users protest plan to close prep schools in Turkey
Turkish Twitter users are in an uproar over a report that the government has drafted a law which would close thousands of private preparatory education centres (known as “dershanes”) across the country. The schools are reportedly a point of tension between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and the Gülen movement that runs many of the schools.
Frontal assault on free enterprise in Turkey: The case of prep-schools
Erdoğan fired a warning shot across the bow of the Hizmet movement, which operates some one-third of the more than 3,500 prep schools, hoping that the movement would fold under the pressure and shy away from criticizing the government on lingering corruption, the lack of bold reforms, the stalled EU membership process, the failed constitutional work, its intrusion in people’s ways of life and privacy, blunders in foreign policy and the weakened transparency and accountability in governance.
Erdoğan: both asset and liability for AKP
“Very few people in Turkey could deny that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government under the leadership of Tayyip Erdoğan has made a tremendous and positive transformation in the country. Now, he is on it again with his insistence on trying to close down tutorial centers that belong to the private sector. Everybody knows that with this he is trying to punish the Hizmet movement, which has resisted pledging absolute loyalty to him.
Fethullah Gülen’s message to PM Tayyip Erdoğan regarding consultants [in 2005]
Mehmet Gündem: If you were to write a letter or send a message to the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, what would you tell him? Fethullah Gülen: “Do not be content with employing consultants only from among the admirers of your party. Do not only speak with your own organizations. Benefit from the wise people who love Turkey; because they act objectively, and seek no personal gain.”
What lies beneath the prep-school row between AK Party and the Hizmet
It is an open secret that Erdoğan is not targeting the prep schools, but the Hizmet movement that is inspired by the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. People and companies that are sympathetic to the movement operate the majority of Turkey’s prep schools. Like the rest of the educational institutions affiliated with the movement, they are the most academically successful, sending students with outstanding scores to the best schools each year.
Shut down schools, not tutoring facilities
The preparatory tutoring schools of the Hizmet movement perform an important sociocultural function. They serve as a barrier in the way of this destructive, postmodern culture that erases all identities. They protect our children from “filth” and endow them with moral values. If any educational institution needs shutting down, it should be the state schools.
Gülen appeals for steadfastness against gov’t ban on prep schools [in Turkey]
Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has asked his followers to be resolute and not yield to despair in the face of a government attempt to shut down private educational institutions [in Turkey] that assist students to prepare for high school and university admission examinations, which was interpreted as a major blow to the right to an education and to free enterprise in the EU-candidate country.
Erdoğan’s way: scare, divide and rule
The last straw [man] by Erdoğan came this week when a draft version of a law seeking the closure of all kinds of privately established prep schools (dershanes) leaked to the media. The bill is so drastic that even private tutoring for kids at homes by parents is banned. The intrusive move is seen as a huge blow to free enterprise and the right to education, prompting concerns that the closure of these schools will block upward mobility in Turkish society.
Behind the war over prep schools [in Turkey]
Notably, all this comes while the tension between the government, especially Erdoğan himself, and the Gülen Movement is deepening. In fact, both groups form part of the “religious conservatives,” and used to be allies against the old secularist guard. However, their differences have become increasingly pronounced and have resulted recently in an increasingly bitter war of words.
Gülen says he would free all coup convicts if he had the means
In a statement published on herkul.org, a website that broadcasts his speeches, Gülen said he was deeply saddened to see “those elderly men” standing trial in these cases, adding that he would favor their release if he was able to. “If I had the means at my disposal, I would tell them, ‘You are all free.’ How? Just like the Prophet said to all on the day of the Conquest of Mecca: ‘Go! You are all free today’.”
Fate of preparatory courses
Zaman’s Hüseyin Gülerce denied allegations that there is tension between the government and Hizmet movement due to government’s steps to bring an end to these preparatory courses, saying that Hizmet does not own all preparatory course schools in the country. What bothers members of Hizmet is that the government has not given a clear or reasonable explanation as to why they are taking these steps, Gülerce said.
