CHP asks top court to annul education law

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) petitioned the Constitutional Court yesterday to suspend and scrap a controversial law that will profoundly overhaul Turkey’s education system and introduce the Quran as an elective course.

The party asked the court to cancel the law on procedural grounds, saying it reserved its right also for an application over the legislation’s content.

The petition argued that the way in which the law was adopted breached five articles of Parliament’s internal statute and 14 constitutional provisions. Most articles of the bill were approved without any debate at Parliament’s Education Commission with the votes of Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies, who took advantage of chaos sparked by an unprecedented brawl with CHP colleagues.

In a statement ahead of the application, CHP deputy group chair Emine Ülker Tarhan condemned the law as a blow to “the democratic and secular state” and described the way it was passed as “the manifestation of civilian dictatorship.”

But some CHP lawmakers have voiced concern that applying for the cancelation of the law will give fresh ammunition to the AKP to portray their party as an adversary of Islam and religious education.
The law, which extends compulsory education from eight to 12 years, also reinstates the secondary stage of the imam-hatip religious schools. It has faced harsh objections also for opening the door for conservative parents to remove their daughters from high school in favor of home study