TÜGVA politics in high schools: 'This country has seen what FETÖ did to the state'

AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan serves on the High Advisory Board of the Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), which has been found to have posted promotional posters in some high schools in Istanbul. Eğitim-İş Union President Kadem Özbay made statements to 12punto regarding the matter.

According to information reaching 12punto, the Turkey Youth Foundation has begun efforts to invite students to a summer camp and excursion program to be held in various high schools in Istanbul. The poster hung at Güngören Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School includes a QR code that opens a form titled "TÜGVA Istanbul High School Volunteer."

'A PRIVILEGED STRUCTURE'

While it is alleged that the camp and excursion program in question will be held in Ankara, Eğitim-İş President Kadem Özbay stated regarding TÜGVA’s political connections: "The Turkey Youth Foundation is known as the 'President’s son’s foundation.' President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son, Bilal Erdoğan, is among the founders of the foundation and remains one of the most influential figures in the structure as a member of the High Advisory Board. In this regard, it is impossible to view TÜGVA as a normal civil society organization; it is a privileged structure with access to public power. The intense participation of high-level bureaucracy in the foundation’s events and its support by the government are the most concrete indicators of this political proximity."

'UNACCEPTABLE'

Regarding the activities carried out by TÜGVA, Özbay stated: "TÜGVA’s activities are not limited to those stated on its own website. We know and hear that it influences reference lists for public institutions and staffing processes, that public properties are allocated to the foundation at low costs, and that it conducts unsupervised activities in schools through protocols signed with the Ministry of National Education. It should not be forgotten that organizations that infiltrated the state structure using similar methods in the past have made this country pay a heavy price. This country has seen what structures organized in this way, like FETÖ, did to the state. Despite this, it is unacceptable for the field of education to be reshaped through such foundations and similar structures again."

'A RISK OF IDEOLOGICAL INDOCTRINATION'

Regarding the impact of TÜGVA’s actions on future generations, Özbay said: "TÜGVA’s presence in schools brings with it the risk of ideological, not pedagogical, indoctrination. The goal is to raise young people not as free individuals, but as cadres loyal to a specific ideology. In a system where merit is replaced by reference relationships, neither quality in education can be achieved nor can justice be established in the public sector." Stating that schools are not ideological spaces and that students should not be seen as a target audience or potential area of organization for any structure, Özbay added: "The education system must be conducted by protecting its scientific, secular, and public nature. This activity of TÜGVA in the field of education poses a serious risk to Turkey’s democratic and secular future. Schools are the common space of teachers, students, and education workers. However, the constant inclusion of such structures in these spaces damages the educational environment and distances the school from being a school."


News: Cenk Başboğaoğlu