According to local daily Mersin Yaşam, an official notice dated November 15, 2016, undersigned by Mersin Provincial Director of National Education, Adem Koca, indicates to a protocol co-signed by General Directorate of Religious Education and Ensar Foundation, which states that seminars will be conducted at 5 educational institutions identified by the foundation’s Mersin branch.
The official notice says: “It is approved that Ensar Foundation shall conduct seminars at schools and institutions identified with the attached programme under the supervision and control of District Directorates of National Education”.
Upon the letter of approval by Mersin Provincial Directorate of National Education, Zehra Türkmen, a member of the reactionary Ensar Foundation, gave seminars with the title of “Resurrection with Salah” for the students from various ‘İmam-Hatip’ schools (religious schools in Turkey) in the city.
ENSAR FOUNDATION AND CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
The rate of child molestation has increased too much during the rule of Justice and Development Party (AKP) in recent years. Turkey has already shaken with ongoing news on child sexual abuse throughout the country.
While the AKP rule takes steps for further Islamized education in Turkey, hundreds of children have been exposed to sexual rape and abuse, an affair which reached peak when scandalous news released that child sexual abuse was witnessed for years at Ensar Foundation, a pro-AKP religious establishment that was strictly guarded by AKP authorities and ministers after the news shook the whole country.
According to the indictment, the assaults started in 2012 and continued until 2015. The children say they were aged between 10 and 12 years old when they were first abused.
Ensar, whose teacher raped 45 children, which provides religious education, scholarships and accommodations to students across Turkey, is known to be close to President Erdoğan’s AKP.
On March 21, AKP member of parliament Nihat Öztürk held a press conference in an Ensar office and said the party will continue to support Ensar. Minister of Family and Social Policies Sema Ramazanoğlu was heavily criticized for defending the foundation and calling the abuse scandal a “one-time incident.”
"A single incident should not become an excuse to defame an institution that has come into prominence with its services," she said. "We know the Ensar Foundation and we appreciate what they do."
Despite public rage regarding the escalating child abuse in Turkey, the AKP government still backs and further enhances religious education and notorious establishments such as Ensar Foundation across the country.
