“We are taking the necessary precautions,” Prime Minister İrsen Küçük said regarding the union-sanctioned acts of bullying. “Those who went too far will [have their identities] determined from video footage [of the raids on Quran courses], and the necessary legal actions will be taken against them.”
For the second year in a row, hyper-secularist activists who are members of teachers’ unions in Turkish Cyprus have been disrupting elective summertime courses that teach students basic principles of the Islamic faith and how to read the Quran in its original Arabic script. Last year, teachers’ union members interrupted some such courses, forcing the teachers and students outside the building and locking the schoolhouse doors in protest of the courses, which they said contradicted the principle of secularism. A number of individuals were taken into custody briefly over the events, but none were actually prosecuted.
Families in both Turkey and Turkish Cyprus who want their children to receive a basic course in religious ethics traditionally send their children to Quran courses over the summer break, which in the KKTC run from July 1-Aug. 30 this year. Due to the trouble last year, the Cypriot Religious Affairs Department had wanted Quran courses to be held at mosques, but the Education Ministry, which co-coordinates the classes with the department, decided that they would be held as usual at schools. On the first day of the courses, members of the Cyprus Turkish Middle School Teachers Union (KTOEÖS) and Middle School Principals Association President Niyazi Şafakoğlu held a protest at Lefkosa Democracy Middle School, disrupting a religious studies course in progress there.
They pulled the teacher and students outside the schoolhouse before staging a protest there and moving on to another school hosting religious studies summer courses, Değirmenlik High.
Official reactions to the raids on the state-run Quran courses have been firm. “It’s not understandable why this is so debated. As it is the courses are run by our ministry,” Prime Minister Küçük said. “The classes are taught at schools that are empty due to the summer break. Instead of having children taught by neighborhood personalities with no certification, we bring well-trained teachers from Turkey. The Religious Affairs Department and Education Ministry coordinate this. You’re free to do as you please as long as it doesn’t infringe upon another’s right to freedom. Everyone must show each other respect.”
