New move from Yusuf Tekin: Removed mention of Vahdettin's departure on a British ship

With the latest regulations, the Ministry of National Education (MEB) has made controversial changes to 8th-grade history textbooks. The narrative regarding the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin's departure from the country in 1922 is presented differently in the new books. In the revised books, the phrase stating that Vahdettin left Istanbul on a British ship is no longer found.

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin had announced in a meeting with AK Party deputies in recent days that the term "National Struggle" was being introduced to replace the concept of "War of Independence" used in textbooks. It was stated that Minister Tekin's explanation cited the reasoning: "What are we being liberated from? Before that, there was the vast Ottoman Empire."

According to a report by Birgün, another notable change in the updated history books is that the last sultan is now referred to only as "Sultan Vahdettin" and the phrase "British ship" has been removed. The event, which was previously described with the sentence "On November 17, 1922, the last sultan Mehmet Vahdettin left Istanbul on a British ship," appears in the new edition as "Sultan Vahdettin left the country on November 17 to go to the island of Malta."

REACTIONS TO THE CHANGES WERE SWIFT

The removal or alteration of historical events and concepts from textbooks is receiving various reactions from the education community and the public. Education unions and some historians state that the regulations could lead to the restriction of scientific historical narrative. It is emphasized that the departure of the last Ottoman sultan on a British ship was previously covered in detail in textbooks, whereas it is now passed over with a superficial narrative.

These changes by the MEB will come into effect in the upcoming academic year. 

News Source: 12punto