How did we come to July 15?

The Education Ministry is changing the curriculum again. The changes have been posted on the website of the ministry; it was also noted that they are open to views and suggestions. 

The changes that sparked a public debate are the inclusion of the democracy struggle achieved against the July 15 coup, restrictions on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the removal of the İsmet İnönü chapter from World War II, not including evolution and, in a supplementary book to teach children the letter “g,” using the sentence “Özge has become a young bride (gelin)” as an example. 

For many years, education in Turkey has been shifted step by step from scientific to religious foundations. I wonder if those who are engaged in this effort are aware that they are playing into the hands of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Boko Haram and the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ)?

Don’t they know that these organizations reject scientific education, oppose sending girls to school, kidnap girls who go to school and want to make Islam, or rather their interpretation of Islam, the only order dominating the world even if it involves fighting wars and beheadings? 

An education system that has distanced from the guidance of science has the risk of raising generations that will easily form the backyard of these movements that reject the state because it is secular; for this reason, they aim to topple the order of states, to replace it with a one-world community. Can’t they see this? 


Why against Atatürk? 

Our founding leader, Atatürk, was enshrined in the hearts of the Turkish people, whether conservative, liberal, rightist or leftist. The Anatolian person who minds his/her own business, who is engaged in daily activities, who does his/her prayers, who pursues the future and the bread of his family and children has no issue or any problem with Atatürk. He has a unique place in the hearts of all. 

Atatürk launched the Liberation War with these people and by believing in these people. He was never their enemy; they in return have never seen Atatürk as their enemy. 

Those who are against Atatürk are the organizations I mentioned above and the movements they are based on. The reason they are enemies of Atatürk is that he stopped these movements, blocking them in 1923.

With this in mind, he abolished the dynasty and the caliphate. The reason is that he founded the modern secular Republic of Turkey and transformed it into a state where religious and state affairs were separated from each other, making Turkey into a member of contemporary states. 

He took science as the true and only leader; he formed scientific education institutions; he eliminated superstition from education, he provided gender equality, and he set the contemporary level of civilization as the target.  

When July 15 is included in the curriculum, these facts should not be forgotten. 

If no other factor is accepted, then only July 15 alone is adequate to very rapidly strengthen Turkey’s contemporary, scientific and secular education system. 

If the democracy struggle staged on July 15 is to enter textbooks, the events that paved the way for July 15 should also be included in the course. 

How did FETÖ attain the power to stage a bloody coup in Turkey on July 15? 

He started with education, he formed his own educational institutes, he also seized the state’s educational institutions, he placed his members in the military-civilian bureaucracy, and he promoted them to higher places. 

This is why education is crucially important in terms of the future of Turkey. Our country barely survived being buried into the darkness on July 15. 

In order not to face such an incident again, to be able to walk forward in continuous brightness, to attain modern technology, generations must be raised who will be aware of the importance of democracy, secularism, human rights, gender equality and justice.