National security courses: militarism in education

In her book “The Military in Turkey” (Türkiye'de Ordu), Ayşe Gül Atınay, an academic from Sabancı University, who has done extensive research on these courses, defines them as an instrument of militarization in education. Ahmet İnsel, a senior political analyst who has written extensively against these courses, says the classes are “unabashedly” trampling the principle of a democratic state.

In fact, these classes have been part of the education curriculum since 1926, though earlier they were called Military Service. In 1979, the courses came to be known as the national security courses we know them as today. That year's directive on the course largely remains in place, with some changes made to it in 1998. The class focuses on the principles of Atatürkism, national unity and solidarity and various unrealistic “threats” allegedly facing Turkey, ranging from partially reasonable to outright paranoid. In various publications, the content of these classes has been criticized for imposing on Turkey's young brains the idea that Turkey is surrounded by enemies as well as centers of power trying to undermine the country from inside such as religious fundamentalists or even non-Muslim groups.

The classes are taught by military officers on active duty, and in cases where such a person is unavailable, by retired military officers, usually of high ranks. The specifics of the course, from its content to how it will be conducted and how many hours it will be, are decided not by the Ministry of Education, but by a special commission of the General Staff.

Imposing racism and hatred

In 2005 a report titled “Human Rights in Schoolbooks,” the result of a collaborative effort between the History Foundation and the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV) involving a survey of 139 textbooks, found that textbooks still contain many militarist, nationalist, racist and gender-biased sections. Only 11 percent of the books were found to be unproblematic. The national security course was found to be among the most problematic elements in the Turkish school curriculum. A report prepared at the end of this study underlines that basing national identity on “a perception of an everlasting threat against the country” and making clear-cut distinctions when defining “outsiders” seriously harm the culture of peace in the country that some are attempting to improve.

Despite its controversial content, not many have spoken against this class. The Freedom Association (Özgür-Der) is one of the rare civilian society organizations that has spoken consistently against it. In a statement released this week, Özgür-Der President Rıdvan Kaya reiterated his organization's view that the highly militaristic overtones of these classes comprise a violation of democratic principles. “All the aspects of political and social life in Turkey are overtaken by the weight of militarism. Despite improvements in recent years in exposing and dismantling illegal groupings within the military, such as the operation into Ergenekon, the discipline and logic of the barracks remains uncompromised in its hold over every sphere of life in the country. Reflections of this can be seen in many fields, from politics and sports to education. The transformation of schools into barracks-like structures is the most widespread and systematic example of this. Children start every day with the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance and are subject to indoctrination by the official ideology. The entire society is subject to an indirect militaristic pollution as a result of this. The national security courses are the most concrete and ugliest instruments of this barracks-like education regime,” said Kaya.

Kaya's statement came shortly after the Taraf daily reported a scandal involving several teachers of national security classes. Official reports accessed by the liberal newspaper indicated that two military officers lecturing on national security kept confidential records on their students and colleagues at their schools, particularly with regard to their religious sensitivities. According to the reports they prepared throughout their stay as lecturers at educational institutions, they collected personal information about students and teachers which they later conveyed to the General Staff, as they had been ordered to do, by answering questions listed on a questionnaire for every person they had suspicions about.

Kaya said the scandal showed that it was high time to do something about the courses. “The Ministry of Education should remove these classes from the curriculum,” he declared, saying this would be a good first step toward democratizing the educational system.