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ERDOGAN VOWS TO MAKE OTTOMAN TURKISH COMPULSORY IN SCHOOLS
Arutz Sheva, Israel
Dec 10 2014
Turkey's President says he will make lessons in the Ottoman language
compulsory despite objections from secularists.
By Ben Ariel
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to make lessons
in the Arabic-alphabet Ottoman language compulsory in high schools,
despite objections from secularists, AFP reports.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, abolished
the Ottoman language in 1928, replacing its Arabic alphabet with a
Latin one.
He also purged the language of many of its Arabic, Persian and Greek
words to create a new "pure" Turkish closer to the language people
spoke.
Critics claimed Erdogan's vow to reintroduce teaching of the language
"no matter what they say" was another bid to roll back Ataturk's
secular reforms, which were based on a strict separation between
religion and state.
Turkey's National Education Council, largely made up of members backed
by Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government, voted over the weekend to
make classes compulsory at religious high schools and an option at
regular high schools, noted AFP.
The council also voted to ban bartending classes at tourism training
high schools.
Erdogan argued the lessons were necessary to restore Turks' severed
ties with "our roots", with most unable to read the tombstones of
their ancestors.
"There are those who do not want this to be taught. This is a great
danger. Whether they like it or not, the Ottoman language will be
learnt and taught in this country," Erdogan told a religious council
meeting in Ankara.
"It's not a foreign language. It's a form of Turkish that will never
age. Therefore it will be taught no matter what they say," he declared.
And in one particularly emotive phrase, Erdogan compared Ataturk's
abolition of the language to cutting Turkey's "jugular".
"History rests in those gravestones. Can there be a bigger weakness
than not knowing this? This (departure from the Ottoman language)
was equal to the severing of our jugular veins," Erdogan said,
according to AFP.
Ottoman Turkish evolved as the administrative language of the
600-year-old multi-ethnic Ottoman empire, on whose ruins Ataturk
created Turkey's modern republic.
But even at the time of the empire's collapse after WWI, it was mostly
unintelligible to all but a tiny ruling elite.
"Hans in Germany can learn it and study the works (in the Ottoman
language)," Erdogan said, citing a typical German male name. "But
unfortunately this isn't the case here."
In comments which will give ammunition to critics who claim he is
becoming more overtly Islamist, Erdogan added, "This religion has a
guardian. And this guardian will protect this religion till the end."
Supporters of compulsory Ottoman language lessons say they are
necessary so Turks can maintain their links to the past after the
brutal cleavage of Ataturk's radical reforms.
The decisions need the approval of the education ministry to take
effect, but the ministry has in the past implemented the majority
of them.
Erdogan, who took over Turkey's presidency in August after serving
as prime minister for more than a decade, has long been accused of
seeking to impose religion on Turkey's mainly Muslim but officially
secular society, as well as Islamizing the education system.
Throughout his time in power there have been more signs of Turkey
turning more extremist. In 2013, the Turkish Parliament tightened
restrictions on the sale and advertising of alcoholic beverages.
A year earlier, a Turkish court formally charged internationally known
pianist and composer Fazil Say with insulting Islamic religious values,
in comments he made on Twitter.
Previously, Turkey's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for
his comments about the mass killings of Armenians, under a law that
made it a crime to insult the Turkish identity. The government eased
that law in an amendment in 2008.
In another incident in 2007, ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
who received death threats because of his comments about the killings
of Armenians by Turks in 1915, was shot dead outside his office
in Istanbul.
Two weeks ago Erdogan stirred up controversy when he said women cannot
be treated as equal to men.
"You cannot put women and men on an equal footing," he told a women's
conference in Istanbul, adding, "It is against nature."
Women cannot do all the work done by men, he added, because it was
against their "delicate nature".
"Our religion regards motherhood very highly. Feminists don't
understand that, they reject motherhood," he charged, adding that
women needed equal respect rather than equality.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188460
Arutz Sheva, Israel
Dec 10 2014
Turkey's President says he will make lessons in the Ottoman language
compulsory despite objections from secularists.
By Ben Ariel
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to make lessons
in the Arabic-alphabet Ottoman language compulsory in high schools,
despite objections from secularists, AFP reports.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, abolished
the Ottoman language in 1928, replacing its Arabic alphabet with a
Latin one.
He also purged the language of many of its Arabic, Persian and Greek
words to create a new "pure" Turkish closer to the language people
spoke.
Critics claimed Erdogan's vow to reintroduce teaching of the language
"no matter what they say" was another bid to roll back Ataturk's
secular reforms, which were based on a strict separation between
religion and state.
Turkey's National Education Council, largely made up of members backed
by Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government, voted over the weekend to
make classes compulsory at religious high schools and an option at
regular high schools, noted AFP.
The council also voted to ban bartending classes at tourism training
high schools.
Erdogan argued the lessons were necessary to restore Turks' severed
ties with "our roots", with most unable to read the tombstones of
their ancestors.
"There are those who do not want this to be taught. This is a great
danger. Whether they like it or not, the Ottoman language will be
learnt and taught in this country," Erdogan told a religious council
meeting in Ankara.
"It's not a foreign language. It's a form of Turkish that will never
age. Therefore it will be taught no matter what they say," he declared.
And in one particularly emotive phrase, Erdogan compared Ataturk's
abolition of the language to cutting Turkey's "jugular".
"History rests in those gravestones. Can there be a bigger weakness
than not knowing this? This (departure from the Ottoman language)
was equal to the severing of our jugular veins," Erdogan said,
according to AFP.
Ottoman Turkish evolved as the administrative language of the
600-year-old multi-ethnic Ottoman empire, on whose ruins Ataturk
created Turkey's modern republic.
But even at the time of the empire's collapse after WWI, it was mostly
unintelligible to all but a tiny ruling elite.
"Hans in Germany can learn it and study the works (in the Ottoman
language)," Erdogan said, citing a typical German male name. "But
unfortunately this isn't the case here."
In comments which will give ammunition to critics who claim he is
becoming more overtly Islamist, Erdogan added, "This religion has a
guardian. And this guardian will protect this religion till the end."
Supporters of compulsory Ottoman language lessons say they are
necessary so Turks can maintain their links to the past after the
brutal cleavage of Ataturk's radical reforms.
The decisions need the approval of the education ministry to take
effect, but the ministry has in the past implemented the majority
of them.
Erdogan, who took over Turkey's presidency in August after serving
as prime minister for more than a decade, has long been accused of
seeking to impose religion on Turkey's mainly Muslim but officially
secular society, as well as Islamizing the education system.
Throughout his time in power there have been more signs of Turkey
turning more extremist. In 2013, the Turkish Parliament tightened
restrictions on the sale and advertising of alcoholic beverages.
A year earlier, a Turkish court formally charged internationally known
pianist and composer Fazil Say with insulting Islamic religious values,
in comments he made on Twitter.
Previously, Turkey's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for
his comments about the mass killings of Armenians, under a law that
made it a crime to insult the Turkish identity. The government eased
that law in an amendment in 2008.
In another incident in 2007, ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
who received death threats because of his comments about the killings
of Armenians by Turks in 1915, was shot dead outside his office
in Istanbul.
Two weeks ago Erdogan stirred up controversy when he said women cannot
be treated as equal to men.
"You cannot put women and men on an equal footing," he told a women's
conference in Istanbul, adding, "It is against nature."
Women cannot do all the work done by men, he added, because it was
against their "delicate nature".
"Our religion regards motherhood very highly. Feminists don't
understand that, they reject motherhood," he charged, adding that
women needed equal respect rather than equality.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188460