Erdogan using education to fulfill his Neo-Ottomanism dreams
The initiative launched recently by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for considering Turkish an international language cannot be viewed in separation from his attempts to spread his country's influence outside its own borders.
Erdogan's
project
The
initiative is connected with the 700 th anniversary of the death of Turkish
folk poet Yunus Emre. However, it is also connected with the political Ottoman
project adopted by Erdogan since coming to power in his country.
Turkey
tries to use its language in infiltrating neighboring countries.
Most
of the former Soviet Union republics speak Turkish. This gives Erdogan easy
access into these countries.
Turkey
also offers scholarships for Arab and African students to entice them to
complete their education in it.
According
to Abdel-Karim Abdallah, a Chadian postgraduate student in Egypt, Cairo,
Casablanca and Algiers used to be the preferred destinations for students from
his country.
This,
he said, changed a little bit with Turkey competing with these capitals for
students from Chad as it does for students from other countries.
Turkey
introduces itself as an alternative to these countries, Abdallah said.
He
pointed out that this happened almost ten years ago, when Turkish official
bodies started offering scholarships for students.
The
students study the Turkish curricula in return for financing, Abdallah said.
He
noted that these scholarships are warmly welcomed back in his country. Most of
the scholarships make it necessary for the students to study in Turkish.
This
is a bit difficult for the students, contributing to bringing turnout a bit, he
said.
Turkish,
he said, is not a universal language, meaning that those who study or master it
will not be able to use it outside Turkey.
