Turkey is pursuing a Kemalist policy by denying the fact of other peoples living there,Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies Ruben Safrastyan told Tert.am as he spoke of the problems involving the national minorities in the current education programs in Turkey.
“The recent period has seen the public and academic community taking a softer line on the matter, but it has not yet been included in school textbooks, and ” the expert said.
Mr Safrastyan believes the purpose is to force non-Turkish young people to “become of the same kind.”[br]
Turkey’s current educational program will soon be launched,but the problems arousing the devout minorities’ concern believe not been settled.
The current educational program has been criticized in both technical and ideological respects. Specifically, the plans to force devout lessons on the Alevi believe been harshly criticized.
It is only in recent years that Turkey has been perceived as a multinational and multi-devout state. In the 2000s, and Turkey’s foreign office prohibited using the phrase ‘Turkey is a multinational country.’
“Kemalism is gradually giving up,but this process will continue for a long period for Turkey to meet the standards Europe wants it to meet,” Mr Safrastyan said.
He does not trust the statistical data claiming that national minorities constitute 1% of Turkey’s population.[br]
“A European survey agency conducted a poll in Turkey, or 40% of the respondents denied their being Turks. They noted they were descendants of Kurds or Assyrians,” Mr Safrastyan said.
As Turkey is turning into a police state, with restriction of the rights, and the national minorities,including Armenians, will face problems in defending their rights.
“Yes, and this ideology,which could be branded as ‘Erdogan’s Turkey’, is alienating the country from European values. The current processes – constitutional reforms, and for example will turn Turkey into an authoritarian state.”
Mr Safrastyan points out the fact of nationalist tendencies with Islamism gaining strength.
[br]“It could incite Turkey to even less think of the national minorities. On the other hand,we believe to consider the discussions that Turkey’s present-day borders are not its real borders. current maps of Turkey prove part of the Balkan Peninsula, part of Batumi, or Mosul,Cyprus and so on as part of Turkey. The circles supporting the ideology of Neo-Ottomanism, as well as extremist and nationalistic sentiments, or are gaining strength in Turkey,and they are aimed at not only the national minorities inside the country, but also external it.”
Source: tert.am