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HISTORY TEXTS DRAW SET OF BLANK PAGES
Hurriyet
April 22 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL - The Ministry of Education has published a revised chapter
for Year 8 history books and asked instructors to teach from the new
text. Changes include removing the names of influential politicians
and a shifted definition of fundamentalism. The ministry's move has
sparked a lively debate over whether the chapter alters or updates
the history of the Republic
Changes made to textbooks for Republic history classes have left
significant gaps in the country's past 40 years, revealing that
Turkey's recent history is still considered a difficult issue to
tackle.
"Turkey after Ataturk: The Second World War and afterwards," the
seventh chapter of the book, was criticized for mentioning the 1999
capture of the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party,
or PKK, and significant alterations made by the department of the
Education Ministry have raised eyebrows.
The ministry has published the altered, 27-page chapter on its Web
site, asking instructors who teach Year 8 Republic history to use
the revised version rather than the one in the book.
The chapter focuses on the history of the country after 1939, which
includes Turkey's role in World War II; the start of multi-party
democracy; the 1960, 1971 and 1980 military coups; the 1970s,
dominated by left-wing and right-wing terrorism; Turkey's efforts to
join the European Union; the start of PKK attacks in the 1980s and
the capture of its leader in 1999; both Gulf Wars; and the region
after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Historians believe that recent history should be held in an objective
way. ToktamıÅ~_ AteÅ~_, an academic from Istanbul University, said
the Board of Education and Discipline prepared the textbooks in line
with their political views and opinions. "Recent history should be
mentioned without any reference to values and opinions. Those people
who experienced those days are still alive and praising [the coups]
may hurt them," he told the NTV news channel yesterday.
But Zubeyde Kilic, head of the Education Personnel Union, or
Egitim-Sen, said the history textbooks do not meet their expectations,
especially on the issues of the military coups. "The military coup
of Sept. 12, 1980, was a major intervention into democracy and it
should not be mentioned in such a shallow way," she said.
Daily Milliyet focused on the changes, mainly on the section about
fundamentalist threats to the country.
While the original version defined fundamentalist acts as efforts to
create chaos through religious differences and accusing secularism of
being anti-religion through propaganda against the state and Turkey's
founder Ataturk, the new version does not refer to secularism
and instead accuses fundamentalists of trying to "perpetrate
anti-scientific actions by rejecting the progressive values of the
society in order to bring back a medieval system."
Yunus Ozturk, head of Egitim-Sen's Bahcelievler branch, said the
changes reveal the intervention of the ruling Justice and Development
Party, or AKP, to the curriculum as a way to defend political Islamic
views. "The fundamentals define Alevism as the same as atheism,
and they condemn Ataturk for introducing a secular system to
Turkey," Ozturk said. "But those details were removed, which makes
it difficult to teach children about fundamentalism in Turkey in a
concrete way." The new version also cites Ataturk's statement warning
that the republic faced threats from people and groups that wanted
to turn back time. The chapter also argued that fundamentalists had
been a threat since the establishment of the Republic.
Military coups The new chapter refers to the 1960, 1971 and 1980
military coups as suspending the country's democratization process and
adds that their negative consequences were overcome by constitutional
changes, new political parties laws and broader reforms.
Two pages dedicated to the coups in the original chapter were removed
and were replaced with two sentences. The section about the Feb. 28,
1996, statement released by the military that led to the toppling
of the coalition government, referred to as the post-modern coup,
was simply removed.
Mustafa Kovanlik, head of Egitim-Sen's Taksim branch, said the removal
of the coups from the curriculum is a positive development because the
former version depicted the coups as reasonable or legitimate things.
Among the sections that were not included in the new chapter were
those that mentioned former Presidents Turgut Ozal and Suleyman Demirel
and former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. Demirel and Ecevit were key
political leaders starting from the 1960s until after 2000. Ozal,
credited with opening the economy overseas, dominated Turkish politics
from 1983 until his death in 1993.
Missionaries Missionary activities were included in a section on
threats to the country and fundamentalist threats.
The chapter said: "Missionary activities are not simple religious
proliferation efforts. It cannot be protected by freedom of thought and
freedom of expression. It is an organized and systematic movement that
forces individuals to change their religion. Missionary activities also
carry a political, economic and cultural perspective and are supported
by nongovernmental organizations and foreign forces. Missionaries
exploit individuals' economic problems and constitute a threat to
national unity and sovereignty."
The section called "Why are Armenians the problem?" in the original
was replaced with a new section called, "Turkish-Armenian Relations."
The new section lists the Armenian terrorist activities in the 1970s
and 1980s directed at Turkish diplomats and notes that Turkey opened
its archives concerning the 1915 incidents.
Daily AkÅ~_am noted that the changes came as Turkey and Armenia were
trying to improve bilateral relations.
Hurriyet
April 22 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL - The Ministry of Education has published a revised chapter
for Year 8 history books and asked instructors to teach from the new
text. Changes include removing the names of influential politicians
and a shifted definition of fundamentalism. The ministry's move has
sparked a lively debate over whether the chapter alters or updates
the history of the Republic
Changes made to textbooks for Republic history classes have left
significant gaps in the country's past 40 years, revealing that
Turkey's recent history is still considered a difficult issue to
tackle.
"Turkey after Ataturk: The Second World War and afterwards," the
seventh chapter of the book, was criticized for mentioning the 1999
capture of the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party,
or PKK, and significant alterations made by the department of the
Education Ministry have raised eyebrows.
The ministry has published the altered, 27-page chapter on its Web
site, asking instructors who teach Year 8 Republic history to use
the revised version rather than the one in the book.
The chapter focuses on the history of the country after 1939, which
includes Turkey's role in World War II; the start of multi-party
democracy; the 1960, 1971 and 1980 military coups; the 1970s,
dominated by left-wing and right-wing terrorism; Turkey's efforts to
join the European Union; the start of PKK attacks in the 1980s and
the capture of its leader in 1999; both Gulf Wars; and the region
after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Historians believe that recent history should be held in an objective
way. ToktamıÅ~_ AteÅ~_, an academic from Istanbul University, said
the Board of Education and Discipline prepared the textbooks in line
with their political views and opinions. "Recent history should be
mentioned without any reference to values and opinions. Those people
who experienced those days are still alive and praising [the coups]
may hurt them," he told the NTV news channel yesterday.
But Zubeyde Kilic, head of the Education Personnel Union, or
Egitim-Sen, said the history textbooks do not meet their expectations,
especially on the issues of the military coups. "The military coup
of Sept. 12, 1980, was a major intervention into democracy and it
should not be mentioned in such a shallow way," she said.
Daily Milliyet focused on the changes, mainly on the section about
fundamentalist threats to the country.
While the original version defined fundamentalist acts as efforts to
create chaos through religious differences and accusing secularism of
being anti-religion through propaganda against the state and Turkey's
founder Ataturk, the new version does not refer to secularism
and instead accuses fundamentalists of trying to "perpetrate
anti-scientific actions by rejecting the progressive values of the
society in order to bring back a medieval system."
Yunus Ozturk, head of Egitim-Sen's Bahcelievler branch, said the
changes reveal the intervention of the ruling Justice and Development
Party, or AKP, to the curriculum as a way to defend political Islamic
views. "The fundamentals define Alevism as the same as atheism,
and they condemn Ataturk for introducing a secular system to
Turkey," Ozturk said. "But those details were removed, which makes
it difficult to teach children about fundamentalism in Turkey in a
concrete way." The new version also cites Ataturk's statement warning
that the republic faced threats from people and groups that wanted
to turn back time. The chapter also argued that fundamentalists had
been a threat since the establishment of the Republic.
Military coups The new chapter refers to the 1960, 1971 and 1980
military coups as suspending the country's democratization process and
adds that their negative consequences were overcome by constitutional
changes, new political parties laws and broader reforms.
Two pages dedicated to the coups in the original chapter were removed
and were replaced with two sentences. The section about the Feb. 28,
1996, statement released by the military that led to the toppling
of the coalition government, referred to as the post-modern coup,
was simply removed.
Mustafa Kovanlik, head of Egitim-Sen's Taksim branch, said the removal
of the coups from the curriculum is a positive development because the
former version depicted the coups as reasonable or legitimate things.
Among the sections that were not included in the new chapter were
those that mentioned former Presidents Turgut Ozal and Suleyman Demirel
and former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. Demirel and Ecevit were key
political leaders starting from the 1960s until after 2000. Ozal,
credited with opening the economy overseas, dominated Turkish politics
from 1983 until his death in 1993.
Missionaries Missionary activities were included in a section on
threats to the country and fundamentalist threats.
The chapter said: "Missionary activities are not simple religious
proliferation efforts. It cannot be protected by freedom of thought and
freedom of expression. It is an organized and systematic movement that
forces individuals to change their religion. Missionary activities also
carry a political, economic and cultural perspective and are supported
by nongovernmental organizations and foreign forces. Missionaries
exploit individuals' economic problems and constitute a threat to
national unity and sovereignty."
The section called "Why are Armenians the problem?" in the original
was replaced with a new section called, "Turkish-Armenian Relations."
The new section lists the Armenian terrorist activities in the 1970s
and 1980s directed at Turkish diplomats and notes that Turkey opened
its archives concerning the 1915 incidents.
Daily AkÅ~_am noted that the changes came as Turkey and Armenia were
trying to improve bilateral relations.