The Evolution of the Turkish School Textbooks from Atatrk to Erdogan

(Hardback)

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This book narrates and analyzes a century of the Turkish education system and textbook indoctrination starting from the foundation of the republic until today. This book divides the history of Turkish education into five periods: Single party government (19231950), Menderes' Democrat Party government (19501960), the 1960 coup generals and their successors' governments (19601980), the Turkish-Islam Synthesis oriented Atatrkist governments (19802002) and finally the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government (2002.). By using the content analysis method the book exposes Kemalism's metamorphosis into "Turkish-Islam Synthesis" influenced Atatrkism and for the first time analyzes this post-1980 official ideology's indoctrination through history, religious studies, civics, and national security knowledge textbooks. This book goes beyond the Atatrkist period and examines the gradual but drastic Islamization of the whole curriculum and school textbooks at the expense of Atatrkism under the AKP. In this framework, this book highlights the recent penetration of controversial concepts such as Neo-Ottomanism, Jihad, and Pan-Turkism into the current Turkish school textbooks. Certainly, the ramifications of the current textbooks will influence the lives of millions of people. Therefore, in order to understand the current political environment in Turkey, this book will function as a manual.

Reviews

In this masterful volume, Dr. Cohen Yanarocak tracks Turkeys sinuous ideological transformation under president Erdoanthrough curriculum and school textbooks. What young Turks learn today will guide how they see the world tomorrow. This is a must-read book for anyone interested in Turkey and its place in the world.

-- Soner Cagaptay, author of A Sultan in Autumn: Erdogan Faces Turkeys Uncontainable Forces

Via a thorough study of the textbooks that have instructed Turkish children over the past nearly one hundred years, Cohen Yanarocaks book adds vital nuance and texture to our understanding of the evolution of Turkish state ideology since Atatrks time, including the past twenty years of AKP control; in so doing, it reveals a worrisome contemporary effort to shape youthful Turkish minds in an anti-American, anti-European, and anti-Israeli direction. This book is an invaluable contribution to understanding the history of the Turkish Republicand, quite possibly, its future.

-- Alan Makovsky, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress

A very impressive and comprehensive analysis of the dramatic ideological upheaval modern Turkey went through. By conducting a thorough content analysis of official Turkish textbooks, Cohen Yanarocak finds a unique but effective way to explain the undercurrent streams of the Secular-Islamic confrontation. A very original way to examine and explain the rise and fall of Atatrkism.

-- Alon Liel, Former Director General Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Author Bio

Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak is the Turkey analyst at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC) at Tel Aviv University.