Laiklik Meclisi calls for the resignation of Minister of National Education Tekin: 'He must immediately vacate the office he occupies'

In a written statement issued by the Laiklik Meclisi, the resignation of Minister of National Education Tekin was demanded following his remarks on secularism during a program he attended.

"Yusuf Tekin, a lover of sultanate and caliphate who occupies the seat of the Ministry of National Education, has once again declared his enmity toward secularism and the Republic," the statement said, including the following expressions:

MAARIF MODEL

"Tekin, who said, 'Until the Unionists became dominant in this country, the Ottoman Empire was a country where everyone lived like brothers,' was able to claim that his own understanding is universal secularism by saying, 'Locking the doors of mosques, turning mosques into stables, banning citizens from learning the Quran... This is what you understand by secularism. You did these things as a requirement of secularism. Then what you understand by secularism and what I understand are not the same. I understand secularism as the state guarantee of freedom of religious belief and worship for all citizens, regardless of which religion they believe in. What do you understand? You understand the shackling and banning of the freedom of belief of Muslims.'"

Yusuf Tekin's distortion of historical facts and his blatant lying also reveal the content of the “Century of Turkey Education Model Curriculum,” of which he is the architect.

SECULARISM ENABLES ASKING QUESTIONS

Because Tekin hesitates to attack the 1923 Republic and its revolutions directly, he is actually attacking secularism and the Republic through the "Unionists." The minister of the Century of Turkey Education Model, by saying "the secularism I understand," has once again confessed to the reactionary attacks he is carrying out as the minister of education of the counter-revolution from the seat he occupies.

Let us remind him what secularism is: First of all, secularism is not irreligion or enmity toward religion. It means that no religion, sect, belief, or group exerts pressure on society. Secularism is the prevention of society from being divided through groups such as religions, sects, tribes, or cults and communities. Secularism means that no one is more privileged than another due to their belief or lack thereof. Because in a secular country, citizens have rights not because of the beliefs they hold, but because they are citizens. Secularism is the guarantee of freedom of religion and belief, just as it ensures that no citizen has any privilege or is subjected to discrimination due to their belief. Secularism is religion withdrawing its hand from the common living spaces of society. Secularism is the prevention of pressure on lifestyles and genders. Secularism is the foundation of women's rights and equality. Secularism is living not according to the rules of any religion or sect, but according to the rules created by human reason with the accumulation of all historical progress. It is the regulation of the state and social relations accordingly. It is the entire society, especially daily life, law, and education, having common rules based on reason and science, and being freed from religious pressure. Secularism is the guarantee that citizens can live together in the social and political sphere without being subjected to pressure, independent of beliefs and religious dogmas. Secularism is the guarantee that society and future generations can progress and claim their rights. Because secularism enables asking questions, questioning, and criticism, not absoluteness.

Those who claim that secularism is enmity toward religion are those who want to seize political power and the state through religious exploitation, channel all the country's resources to themselves and imperialist projects, and are cults and communities aiming to gain power in state institutions. Yusuf Tekin, who has once again committed a constitutional crime, must immediately vacate the office he occupies. The Laiklik Meclisi reminds Tekin and those like him, who lean on the dark mentality of the 'new regime,' once again that our country possesses the progressive accumulation to destroy this mentality with its great wealth and strong will."

'A MODEL PROPOSED BASED ON THE THOUGHTS OF SAID NURSİ...'

Laiklik Meclisi Spokesperson Özkan Rona also emphasized in his statement that the Century of Turkey Education Model violates secularism, saying:

"The Maarif Platform of cults and communities is providing professional training to teachers. Prof. Dr. Bayram Özer, a board member of the structure called the Maarif Platform, was among the instructors in the video training that 1 million teachers working in schools and institutions affiliated with the Ministry of National Education were required to watch during the November mid-term professional development break. It has emerged that Bayram Özer, who provided training to teachers under the title of 'Century of Turkey Education Model Virtue, Value Action Framework' and who holds the title of Professor Doctor, also took part in the preparation process of the reactionary and anti-scientific curriculum called the Century of Turkey Education Model.

Considering that this person provided training to a large number of teachers by the Ministry of National Education to promote the Maarif Model, it is understood who prepared the Maarif Model.

Shortly after Minister Yusuf Tekin announced that work on the new curriculum would begin, it was argued in a text titled “Call for National Education,” published through the Maarif Platform, which also included Bayram Özer, that religious elements should be integrated into the entire curriculum, co-education should be abolished, there should be no centralized education, and a Maarif Model based on the ideas of the anti-Republican, sharia-advocating Said Nursi and the sharia-advocating Nurettin Topçu should be created.

They were able to argue with great audacity that lessons should be learned from the defeat the AKP government suffered in the last election, and that the AKP's need for intellectual power should be met by spreading religious ideas in society through the Maarif Model Curriculum. It is a disaster that Bayram Özer, who sees the political power and its ideology as a political tool to be spread in society, is training teachers at a faculty of education.

Bayram Özer and the Maarif Platform, who proposed the Maarif Model based on the thoughts of the anti-Republican Said Nursi, are continuing their lobbying efforts against co-education by delivering the document titled ‘Co-education Report,’ which they recently prepared, to the deputy ministers and bureaucrats of the Ministry of National Education. It is unacceptable for Bayram Özer, who advocates for religionized education by taking anti-co-education cult leaders as a reference, to impose these reactionary codes of thought on the teachers of the secular Republic. It is becoming more evident every day that the Century of Turkey Education Model was prepared by platforms formed by cults and communities.

'WE WILL TAKE IT TO THE JUDICIARY'

As the Laiklik Meclisi, while we escalate our legal struggle in every field against this attack aimed at collapsing secular education, we will also take these concrete data to the judiciary as our material evidence. We will continue our integrated struggle against the Century of Turkey Education Curriculum, which is a reactionary education model designed to detach society from the enlightened values of humanity, and against the Ministry of National Education Academy, which aims to train the staff needed by this curriculum that will turn the teaching profession into a madrasa-style instruction.

We ask Yusuf Tekin, who sits in the seat of the Ministry of National Education, and the public: What is the Maarif Platform, which carries out joint work and organizes workshops with the Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA)? What are the Dalgıç Aid Foundation, the Kartal Esentepe Education, Culture and Solidarity Association, and the Interdisciplinary Education and Research Association, which are declared to be the founders of this platform and have reactionary and anti-scientific alternative 'curriculum' texts? Who is Osman Çakmak, the President of the Platform, who has operated in the publishing organs of the Gülen community, written articles, appeared on programs, and openly expressed that he is against co-education? Who is Bayram Özer, who references names like the anti-Republican Said-i Nursi and the sharia-advocating racist Nurettin Topçu? How were the weights and duties of all these formations and names in the “curriculum” preparation determined?"