Turkey’s public funding plundered for pro-government foundation

241 million TL from the budget of the Ministry of National Education will be allocated to the state-funded Maarif Foundation in Turkey. The relevant decree has been published in an Official Gazette
Friday, 18 August 2017 06:04

On August 17th, a cabinet decree was published for the allocation of 241 million TL from the Ministry of National Education (MEB)’s budget to the Maarif Foundation, established by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with the purpose of intervening in education.

The Turkish Maarif Foundation was established with statutes-at-large in 2016, and 90 million TL from the MEB’s budget had been allocated to the Maarif Foundation in 2016 by formal decree. The decree has aimed to carry out work on providing formal and non-formal educational services abroad, to provide scholarships in all educational processes from pre-school education to university education, to establish facilities such as educational institutions and dormitories, and to train lecturers who could be assigned to these institutions.

The Maarif Foundation, which was founded by the state, is exempted from all kinds of taxes and charges. According to Article 5 of the decree, the income sources of the foundation consists of funds allocated from the budget, grants allocated from national and international funds, all types of conditional and unconditional endowments as well as aids in kind and financial aids, revenues of the foundation and commercial enterprises, and revenues from immovable properties.

In addition to these, 5 schools in Guinea and 18 schools in Mali have been allocated to the foundation. These schools in the West African countries of Mali and Guinea had been confiscated by the state on the grounds that they belonged to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen’s religious sect. Yet, there is no clear information about how many schools there are affiliated to the Maarif Foundation. 

DEFINITION OF 'GOOD PERSON' FROM THE HEAD OF THE FOUNDATION: ISLAMIC MATURITY

The foundation had also held a photography exhibition named "The New Epic of an Ancient Nation: July 15" about Turkey’s failed July 15th coup last year. The issue of the coup attempt and its glorification as a ‘‘new epic of the Turkish nation’’ has become indispensable for meetings of the foundation. The Ministry of National Education and the Directorate of Religious Affairs were also among the participants of these meetings.

"Our mission is to be a brand that raises virtuous individuals and to raise good people", the Head of Maarif Foundation Prof. Birol Akgün stated during a presentation. Immediately after his statement, he explained what should be understood by 'good person': "Maturity in an Islamic sense".

It seems that the Maarif Foundation has become one of the most important tools of reactionary attacks on the secular structure of the Republic of Turkey under the AKP government. One crucial point is also the question of why the state establishes a foundation. According to soL columnist and the former commissioner of audits Kadir Sev, the state establishes foundations so that public funding can be exempted from budgetary discipline by seemingly legitimizing it in public opinion, and so it can be freely spent in an environment where the rules are stretched. By establishing the Maarif Foundation, the AKP government aims not only to freely use the public funding it has plundered from the budget in an uncontrolled environment, but also aims to eliminate the rules that the state itself had to set up.