Turkish Ultra-Nationalist Education Produces Soldier-Students

The Turkish anthropologist, Ayşe Gül Altınay, is a good source on the militarist, virulent, Turkish education system. If anyone has interacted with the typical Turk in real life or online, one will wonder where their renowned fanaticism comes from. Well she partly answers it in her works. 

Bianet: Turk-Soldier-Muslim: The Ideal Student

"The ideal student, according to the education system in Turkey, is the student who looks at the world with a nationalist mentality, who defines him or herself as 'a Turk' based on ethnicity, and who is a soldier-student, ready to fight."

Presenting a paper titled "Who is a good Turk?: The 'Ideal' student according to Textbooks" at the "International Human Rights Education and TextBook Research Symposium" held last weekend, Assistant Professor Ayse Gul Altinay from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabanci University, tackled this issue.

                ...

Another important characteristic of the "ideal" Turkish student in textbooks is being a "soldier-student." By extension, this ideal student, or the first-class citizen is basically a man.

Here, military service is defined as a cultural given and students are told that they will not be of any good to themselves, their families or their nation if they do not serve in the military. Under this definition, military service is no longer a citizenship obligation for male citizens. It is taken out of the political/legal framework, and is used in a social and cultural framework, which defines a person's life, and his relations with his family and environment.

The discourse about Turks being a "military-nation" underlies this argument and it naturalizes dying, killing and thus, violence.

Almost all excerpts reflect a homogenous nation that represents a "single race" and a single culture. Saying there are different "races" within one nation is defined as "separatism."

The general view in these textbooks is that, the Turkish nation is a homogenous nation with a single ethnicity. Thus the books ignore the diversity in Turkey and see every kind of diversity as an element of "threat."

Ayşe Gül Altınay went on to produce a related book that deals with this subject further:

In Turkey, the mandatory military course taught in high schools by military officers remains one of the most significant sites where the interdependencies between education and defense are established and naturalized. Taught under different names in different periods (Military Service, Preparation for Military Service, National Defense Knowledge, and National Security Knowledge), the military course has been in the curriculum of high schools since 1926. Currently, it is called National Security Knowledge and is mandatory for all students (male and female) in the second year of high school, regardless of the kind of school. ...

The most important continuity is that the course has been taught by military officers (or retired officers) who get paid by the Ministry of National Education or the school that employs them. However, neither the Ministry nor the schools have any say in the choice of these officer-teachers. The officer-teachers are appointed by the highest commander of the nearest garrison on an annual basis. ... Their qualification for teaching this course is defined solely in military terms: the most preferred category is that of staff officers (Staff Colonels, Majors, and Captains), followed by other officers ranked militarily.[5] ...

Source:
Altinay, Ayse Gul. Myth Of The Military Nation. (Palgrave, 2004; 1st Edition) p. 124.

Here is a Youtube video, Neden Hedef Türkiye(48:51), that was shown to Turkish students in those classes that teaches them to suspect neighboring countries and minorities. If anyone knows Turkish and is willing to translate please translate any section you wish in the comments.

Turkish Journalist On Who Really Burnt Down Smyrna/Izmir in 1922

A Ottoman-Turkish journalist and contemporary eye-witness, Falih Rifki Atay, on who really burnt down Smyrna/Izmir on September 13th, 1922: 

AFTER THE VICTORY

Because I have decided to write the truth about what I know, I will quote a page from the notes I made at that time: The looters too helped the fire expand. One of the things I regret the most [is]; an officer who went to loot a photograph’s shop left pictures he had taken during the entire offensive wars at the hotel, [leading to] the burning and loss of these historical documents. Why were we burning Izmir? Were we fearing that we wouldn’t be rid of the minorities [the non-Muslim communities in Turkey] if we left the mansions, hotels and casinos [cafés, bars etc.] to stand? At the time of the 1st World War, when Armenians were deported, we burnt down any and every habitable neighbourhood and quarter of cities and towns in Anatolia with the same fear. There is no thing which will not come from this driest of dry [in e.g. purest of pure] feelings of [wishes of] destruction. In this there is also the effect of a sense of inferiority complex. It was surely in our fate not to be [a place] resembling a piece of Europe in every corner, as if (sic) being Christian or foreigner. If there had been another war [and] if we’d been defeated; would leaving Izmir in ruin be sufficient in protecting the city’s Turkishness? If it hadn’t been for Nureddin Pasha, whom I came to know as a dark fanatic, raging demogogue, I don’t believe the continuation of this tragedy would have been possible till the end. Nureddin Pasha was without any doubt strengthened by the feelings of rancor and revenge harboured by the arriving officers and people who had witnessed the ruins of Turkish towns burnt down to coal by the Greeks and the crying and agitated populace of these, [even] before [the time of] Afyon. Likewise, after the victory at Izmir, a Nureddin Pasha issue will arise (sic). This man, with the smallest share in the victory, as soon as he entered Izmir, printed a personal card reading "Besieger of Küt-al-Amara, winner of the Afyon war and conqueror of İzmir." And the first man he met [in e.g. held a meeting with] in Izmir was the mufti [or “mullah”]. Nureddin Pasha left a declaration for himself [saying]: at his death a mosque the size of Kordon [quarter in Izmir] and his tomb were to be built. The Conqueror was to be buried in this tomb. The Mufti, was little after going to present this bearded and majestic [in e.g. grand] leader to the whole of Turkey’s religious fanatics in through [one of] his booklet[s]. And when he went from Izmir to Izmit, at the time of his meeting with commanding officers:
- I came again, said the man not commenting [in e.g. giving oppinion] on the war:
- I came prepared to walk over Mesta-Karasu, [but] I’ve been held here, he was to say.

Atay, Falih Rifki. Cankaya (1969) p. 325.

Turkish original: 

ZAFER SONRASI
325
Bildiklerimin doğrusunu yazmaya karar verdiğim için o zamanki notlarımdan bir sayfayı buraya aktarmak istiyorum: «Yağmacılar da ateşin büyümesine yardım ettiler. En çok esef ettiğim şeylerden biri. bir fotoğrafçı dükkânıni yağmaya giden subay, bütün taarruz harbleri boyunca çekmiş olduğu filmleri otelde bıraktığı için. bu tarihi vesikaların yanıp gitmesi olmuştur. İzmir'i niçin yakıyorduk? Kordon konaklan, oteller ve gazinolar kalırsa, azınlıklardan kurtulamıyacagımızdan mı korkuyorduk? Birinci Dünya Harbinde Ermeniler tehcir olunduğu vakit. Anadolu şehir ve kasabalarının oturulabilir ne kadar mahalle ve semtleri varsa, gene bu korku ile yakmıştık. Bu kuru kuruya tahripçilik hissinden gelme bir şey değildir. Bunda bir aşağılık duygusunun da etkisi var. Bir Avrupa parçasına benzeyen her köşe. sanki hıristiyan veya yabancı olmak, mutlak bizim olmamak kaderinde idi. Bir harb daha olsa da yenilmiş olsak, izmir'i arsalar halinde bırakmış olmak, şehrin Türklüğünü korumaya kâfi gelecek miydi? Koyu bir mutaassıp, öfkelendirici bir demagog olarak tanımış olduğum Nureddin Paşa olmasaydı, bu facianın sonuna kadar devam etmiyeceğini sanıyorum. Nureddin Paşa, tâ Afyon'dan beri Yunanlıların yakıp kül ettiği Türk kasabalarının enkazını ve ağlayıp çırpınan halkını görerek gelen subayların ve neferlerin affetmez hınç ve intikam hislerinden de şüphesiz kuvvet almakta idi.»
Nitekim İzmir zaferinin hemen arkasından bir Nureddin Paşa meselesi çıkacaktır. Zaferin bu en küçük hisseli adamı izmir'e girer girmez şöyle bir vizita kartı bastırmıştı: «Küt-ül-Amare muha-sırı, Afyon ve Dumlupınar muharebeleri gaalibi, İzmir fâtihi Nureddin Paşa.>> Izmir'de ilk buluştuğu adam da müftü idi. Nureddin Paşa kendisine bir vasiyetname bırakıyordu: ölünce Kordon bo-yuna bir camii, bir de türbesi yapılacaktı. Fâtih bu türbeye gömülecekti. Müftü, bir risalesi ile. biraz sonra irticaın bu sakallı ve azametli liderini bütün Türkiye yobazlarına takdim ettirmek üzere idi. İzmir'den İzmit'e gittiği zaman da, Çay'da komutanlara danışıldığı zaman:
— Yeni geldim, diye taarruz hakkında oy vermiyen bu adam :
— Ben Mesta-Karasu üstüne yürümek için hazırlanmıştım, beni burada tuttular, diyecekti.
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Yakup Kadri, ben ve Asım Us, Bornova'da bir İngiliz evine yerleştik. Bornova karargâhların bulunduğu yer olduğu İçin. her gün