Do Turkish schools increase Erdogan's influence abroad?
Austin Davis
January 10, 2020
The German government is working out a possible framework for opening Turkish schools in three German cities. DW dives into what that would look like in practice.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. Kose
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The German government announced on Friday negotiations with Ankara to create a framework for Turkish schools to be opened in Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt, sparking debate over the schools' role in increasing Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan's political influence abroad.
The three cities are among Germany's largest and have significant population centers of Turkish citizens and Germans of Turkish descent. Germany is home to some 3 million individuals with Turkish roots, half of whom hold German citizenship.
A spokesperson for Germany's Foreign Ministry told reporters on Friday that the proposal primarily aims at "securing a legal basis" for German schools in Turkey.
Three German schools in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir have a "long tradition" and "an excellent reputation," according to the Foreign Ministry, and the government has similar educational arrangements with 20 other nations. The German school in Izmir shut its doors in 2018 due to a supposed licensing issue.
Why are German and Turkish relations so strained?
German-Turkish relations have deteriorated since the failed coup against Turkish President Erdogan in 2016 and the crackdown that followed. DW looks at some of the key moments that soured ties between Berlin and Ankara.
Image: picture-alliance/POP-EYE/B. Kriemann
The Böhmermann affair
March 31, 2016: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed charges against German comedian and satirist Jan Böhmermann over his "defamatory poem" about the Turkish leader. German prosecutors eventually dropped the charges on October 4, 2016, but the case sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Ankara.
German lawmakers pass resolution to recognize 1915 Armenian Genocide
June 2, 2016: The resolution passed almost unanimously. In response, Turkey recalled its ambassador in Berlin and Germany's Turkish community held protests in several German cities. Turkey had repeatedly criticized the use of the term genocide to describe the Ottoman-era Armenian killings, arguing that the number of deaths had been inflated, and that Turkish Muslims also perished in the violence.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Gallup
Tensions following failed coup in Turkey
July 15, 2016: A faction of the Turkish military tried to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but ultimately failed. Ankara accused Berlin of not taking a clear stand against the coup attempt or not doing anything about exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen's organization, who Erdogan blames for orchestrating the failed coup.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Suna
Germany criticizes post-coup purge
Immediately following the attempted coup, Turkish authorities purged the army and judiciary, detaining thousands of people. The purge expanded to include civil servants, university officials and teachers. German politicians criticize the detentions. Turkish diplomats, academics and military members fled the country and applied for asylum in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Suna
Kurdish rallies in Cologne
Erdogan's post-coup crackdown has also been condemned by Kurdish protesters at several mass demonstrations in the west German city of Cologne. Often the rallies have called for the release of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey considers to be a terror group. Ankara has accused Berlin of not doing enough to stop PKK activities.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Meissner
Arrest of German citizens in Turkey
February 14, 2017: Deniz Yücel, a correspondent for the "Welt" newspaper, was taken into custody in Turkey. Other German nationals, including journalist Mesale Tolu and human rights activist Peter Steudtner were detained in Turkey for what Berlin dubbed "political reasons." Turkey accused them of supporting terrorist organizations. All three have since been released pending trial.
March 2017: A number of German localities blocked Turkish ministers from holding rallies in their districts ahead of an April referendum in Turkey to enhance President Erdogan's powers. The Turkish leader then accused Germany of using "Nazi tactics" against Turkish citizens in Germany and visiting Turkish lawmakers. German leaders were not amused by the jibe, saying Erdogan had gone too far.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Berg
Spying allegations
March 30, 2017: Germany accused Turkey of spying on hundreds of suspected Gulen supporters as well as over 200 associations and schools linked to the Gulen movement in Germany. Turkish asylum-seekers have since accused officials working in Germany's immigration authority (BAMF) of passing on their information to media outlets with ties to the Turkish government.
Image: Imago/Chromeorange/M. Schroeder
Erdogan urges German-Turks not to vote for 'enemies of Turkey'
August 18, 2017: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed three of Germany's main political parties as "enemies of Turkey" and told Turks living in Germany not to vote for them in September's general election. He singled out Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD), and the Greens. Merkel said Erdogan was "meddling" in Germany's election.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/AA/M. Ali Ozcan
Merkel says Turkey should not become EU member
September 4, 2017: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during an election debate that she didn't think Turkey should become a member of the European Union and said she would speak with other EU leaders about ending Ankara's accession talks. In October, she backed a move to cut Turkey's pre-accession EU funds.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Turkey's military offensive in Afrin
January 20, 2018: The Turkish military and their Syrian rebel allies launched "Operation Olive Branch" against the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in northern Syria. The move was criticized by German politicians and prompted large protests by Kurdish communities in Germany.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. Kose
Journalist Deniz Yücel released from prison
February 16, 2018: Turkey ordered the release of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel after he'd been held for over a year without charge. According to Turkish state media, Yücel was released on bail from pre-trial detention. Prosecutors asked for an 18-year jail sentence for Yücel on charges of "terror propaganda" and incitement.
Image: picture-alliance/Eventpress/Stauffenberg
Özil quits
July 2018: German footballer Mesut Özil quit the national team following the fallout from his meeting with the Turkish president. Özil said he was being made a scapegoat for Germany's forgettable performance at the FIFA World Cup in Moscow because of his Turkish heritage. Erdogan praised Özil's decision and slammed the "racist" mistreatment of the footballer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Presidential Press Service
Travel ban lifted
August 2018: A Turkish court removed the travel ban on German journalist Mesale Tolu, who was arrested last year on terrorism-related charges. But the trial against Tolu, who has since returned to Germany, is set to continue. Her husband, Suat Corlu, who is facing similar charges, has been ordered to remain in Turkey.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Schmidt
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Horror scenarios
The prospect of a reciprocal arrangement in Germany has spawned a slurry of horror scenarios about how the schools would operate and the opportunity it would present Erdogan to undermine democratic values.
Since 2016's failed coup attempt against his premiership, the Turkish president has purged civil society of dissenters and stands accused of eroding democratic norms in a nation once seen as the region's most progressive.
"It is fatal that the federal government is negotiating with Erdogan to open its own private schools in Germany while the Turkish autocrat is driving his country's critics into prison or exile," Sevim Dagdelen, a lawmaker with Germany's socialist Left Party and chair of the Parliament's German-Turkish group, said in a statement. "Erdogan polarizes and divides our society. His schools are poisonous for integration and democracy."
Disdain for the idea is one of few sentiments shared between parties at the extreme left and right of the political spectrum, albeit for different reasons.
"The establishment of Turkish schools in Germany is driving the Islamization of the German education system," lawmaker Götz Frömming with the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), said in a statement. "There are fears that Erdogan's Islamist ideology will also be taught in schools on German soil in the future."
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Hundreds of institutions
Such fears are not confined to Germany's borders. In early 2019, France moved to block a Turkish delegation's plans to erect schools in Paris partially funded by Turkey that would teach the standard French curriculum as well as religious classes.
"Everyone knows that Turkey is moving towards Islamist fundamentalism and expansionism," French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said at the time, according to TheTimes of London.
Meanwhile, reporters following the curriculum of Turkish schools in Albania have denounced them as "educational intervention" centers that are used by Erdogan as a tool for soft-power diplomacy.
Turkey, through the arm of the Maarif Foundation, the only parliamentary recognized provider of Turkish education abroad, operates nearly 300 educational institutions in 35 countries, mostly in South Asia, Africa and Southeast Europe, according to reporting by Balkan Insight.
The foundation is the successor to a network of schools once operated by Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric whom Erdogan suspects was the mastermind behind the 2016 failed coup attempt.
Though a finalized framework between Ankara and Berlin is still in the works, the spokesperson for Germany's Foreign Ministry stressed that any agreement would "not create a new legal situation for schools" in Germany.
In practice, that means that such Turkish schools would have to abide by the same regulations as other private educational institutions in Germany, such as Waldorf Schools, Dr. Nele McElvany, executive director of the Center for Research on Education and School Development in Dortmund, told DW.
Such institutions can create their own lesson plans but must submit them for state approval in order to receive official recognition and public financing. The biggest criteria is that they align with German standards that prepare students for a variety of school-exiting exams.
Such scrutiny from authorities and the German public decreases the risk that Turkish schools in Germany would be able to spread Erdogan's political ideology in line with lawmakers' worst fears, McElvany said.
"You have more ability to act against ideological propaganda or the like [in schools] than in other areas, such as Islam classes at mosques in Germany, for example, where there is much, much less regulation," she said. "Our school system is light years away from being so open so as to allow for unregulated influences to affect students."
