Erdoğan Contradicts Davutoğlu On Ottoman Turkish Classes

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has differed from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on the matter of instating Ottoman Turkish as a compulsory subject. Erdoğan announced that it would be taught, whether critics like it or not, whereas Davutoğlu said the matter is just a suggestion at the moment.

Addressing the 5th Religion Council, hosted by the Religious Affairs Directorate, Erdoğan defended the proposed classes, saying that learning the Ottoman language will restore severed ties with “our roots.” Continuing to weigh in on politics whenever he finds the opportunity to speak to large crowds, Erdoğan has evidently taken the National Education Council's suggestion seriously, going as far as to contradict Prime Minister Davutoğlu. Using calmer language than the president, Davutoğlu explained that the National Education Council is simply a platform where academics can propose suggestions to the Ministry of Education.

Before his departure to Poland on Monday, at Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Davutoğlu said he was unable to understand criticisms towards Ottoman Turkish. Davutoğlu explained that Ottoman Turkish is not a foreign language, and should be thought of as old Turkish. With regards to the suggestion to instate compulsory religious classes for primary school students, proposed by the National Education Council, Davutoğlu argued that the proposal was nothing different to the current state of the education system.

The National Education Council voted over the weekend on a proposal to introduce compulsory Ottoman language classes at religious imam-hatip high schools, and as elective classes at other high schools, along with other proposals to make religious culture classes compulsory from the first grade onwards, while subsequently removing bartending classes from vocational tourism high schools.

Erdoğan said pious people have been systematically scorned in these lands for the past 200 years, and that Islamophobia has been flamed both in the West and within the Islamic world, forcing the Muslim world and its intellectuals to remain in a “defensive position.”

Pointing out that the Ottoman language is "not a foreign language," Erdoğan said the shift from the Ottoman language was equal to the severing of the jugular vein. “It is a disaster that this nation, which had superior scientific qualities, lost its wisdom,” added Erdoğan.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) held a general congress on Aug. 27, one day before Erdoğan's departure, where Davutoğlu, having been previously designated by Erdoğan as his successor, was elected to be the new prime minister. Erdoğan's apparent aspirations to act like a president in a presidential system, ignoring the existence of the parliamentary system in Turkey, as well as his remarks suggesting that he would fully exercise his powers as president, led to concerns that there would be a rift between himself and the prime minister.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)