Minister Tekin responds to curriculum criticisms: "No matter what you say, I will continue."

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin attended the 8th Ordinary Congress of the AK Party Central District in Batman. Responding to criticisms regarding secularism and the curriculum, Minister Tekin stated that they would continue regardless of the circumstances. Tekin, who expressed his support for universal secularism, said: "They criticize me. They say that what you are saying is contrary to secular education. I say it may be contrary to you, but it is not contrary to the values of the citizens in Batman or Erzurum. If there is a contradiction, it is between what you understand as secularism and what the citizens understand."

MINISTER OF NATIONAL EDUCATION TEKİN: WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND FROM SECULARISM IS NOT THE SAME AS WHAT I UNDERSTAND

Your understanding of secularism is this; remember the 1940s, locking the doors of mosques, turning mosques into barns, prohibiting citizens from learning the Quran. This is what you understand from secularism. You did these things as a requirement of secularism. Then what you understand from secularism is not the same as what I understand. I understand secularism as the guarantee of freedom of religious belief and worship for all citizens, regardless of what religion they believe in.

"I AM IN FAVOR OF UNIVERSAL SECULARISM"

What do you understand? You understand the restriction and prohibition of Muslims' freedom of belief. Then there is undoubtedly a difference between our understandings of secularism. I am in favor of universal secularism, while you are imposing your own invented concept of secularism specific to Turkey on me. This cannot be. What you understand from secularism is this; trying to convince a child who wants to go to university with a headscarf in persuasion rooms, you did this as a requirement of secularism. While doing this, you defended yourself with secularism. So is the secularism you defend the same as the secularism I understand? It is not the same.

In the early years of the AK Party government, 411 of our deputies signed the constitutional amendment for freedom of headscarves. The Republican People's Party took it to the Constitutional Court. Why did they take it? They took it because it was contrary to secularism. What is in it? It states that if a student going to university wants to cover their head, they should be able to do so. Now, how does this contradict the understanding of secularism or secularism in a universal sense? Because what we call secularism is the guarantee of people's freedom of religious belief and worship. That's all. In 2014, we made a regulatory change. We introduced a requirement for naturally lit worship areas in schools.

"THEY ARE IMPOSING CONCEPTS THAT DO NOT COINCIDE WITH UNIVERSAL DEFINITIONS ON US"

A cancellation case was filed on the grounds of being contrary to secularism. Now, how is this contrary to secularism? We made arrangements so that if they want, high school students can also cover their heads, and teachers can also cover their heads. They applied to the Council of State saying that secularism is secular. Now there is a problem here. Some people who want to impose their ideological perspectives on us are imposing concepts that do not coincide with universal definitions on us and criticizing us based on that. We are a society with a state tradition of thousands of years, and the dominant point in our state tradition is the law of brotherhood. You will want the same for your brother as you want for yourself.

"I WILL CONTINUE TO DO THESE THINGS"

While you perform your worship, it is completely incompatible with our tradition that the person next to you, whom you call 'brother', cannot perform their worship. They criticize what we do in the curriculum. They say that what you are doing is outdated. They say that what you are doing is contrary to secularism. I say that as a person who comes from a village in Erzurum, I want my children to be raised with the values of the society I come from. I want them to be proud of these values. I am fighting for this. That is why I do these things. No matter how much you criticize me, I will continue to do these things.