MHP leader reacts against decision preventing student oath

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on March 15 reacted strongly against the decision of the Council of State preventing the Turkish oath in schools.

The practice of reciting the student oath was abolished in 2013 by the government as part of a “democratization package.” Following a legal action by Turkey’s Education and Science Worker’s Union, the eighth department of the Council of State decided in 2018 that the justification for removing the student oath had not been sufficient.

While the eighth department of the Council of State annulled the provision of the education ministry regulation that abolished the oath of students, the oath was not reintroduced again, and the Education Ministry asked for annulment to be suspended.

In February, the Council of State Administrative Law Divisions reportedly overturned the decision of the eighth Department of the Council of State.

Following this decision, the oath of students will no longer be read in schools.

“The Council of State has signed a scandalous decision, clashing with national realities,” Bahçeli said in a written statement.

He stated that the Council of State Administrative Law Divisions overturned the decision of the eighth chamber of Council of State “irresponsibly, unconsciously, in a manner deprived of rights and law in a very sensitive period of Turkey.”

“Another strange and controversial aspect of the issue is that this decision was taken by the Council of State Administrative Law Divisions in February, but it has not been signed yet,” he said and noted that the issue was leaked to media despite not being signed yet.

Bahçeli said it was intended that this case, which has been held for about two years, should be resolved and served at once.

“It will not be a dignified and democratic attitude to prevent our student oath from being taught in schools and to legally block it,” he added.