Turkish government to privilege Islamic school graduates enrolment to military schools

Turkey’s Islamic divinity school students will have a precedence in enrollment to military and police schools
Tuesday, 13 June 2017 07:15

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has launched early its new ‘campaign’ for İmam Hatip High Schools (Islamic divinity schools) which failed to attract the desired number of students despite extraordinary investments. Turkey’s Islamic divinity school students will have a precedence in enrollment to military and police schools, it has been reported.

According to a report of Saygı Öztürk from daily Sözcü, the Ministry of National Education has introduced a number of plans in order to attract more students to İmam Hatip schools with the encouragement of some religious foundations and associations. In some brochures prepared in a similar way to each other, what kinds of privileges the Islamic school students will be granted are specified. Hoca Ahmet Yesevi Anatolian High School has announced in its brochure that the graduates will have a precedence in enrollment to military and police schools.

Aside from ‘being privileged’, following ‘promises’ were listed for the students preferred to enrol İmam Hatip schools:  becoming a young adult who is faithful and conscious; becoming a citizen who is devoted to the nation, homeland, and Islamic values; and having a privilege of selection to higher education institutions.

The religious-reactionary brochure also includes such a statement that "divinity schools and theology faculties will be the future jobs in our country because of increasing weekly 2 hours of Culture of Religion and Knowledge of Ethics courses in all secondary education.

Islamists in Turkey have long been trying to organise within the military by concealing their Islamist identity. These organisational attempts were one of the strategies of the

During the first years of the AKP government, Islamists carried out a large-scale ‘purge’ operations against the military through unlawful means owing to these ‘infiltrations’. Yet then, the U.S.-based Islamic preacher, a former ally of AKP government, falling out with the AKP government due to power struggles and the clash of interests attempted a failed military coup on July 15, 2016.