Service Rendered by Turkish Schools to Turkish...
There was a very meaningful ceremony in Istanbul last Sunday. Our newspaper reported the news with the headline, "Foreign Students Fluent in Turkish Lavished with Awards."
Organized by Dilset and Zambak Publications for the second time this year, Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc also attended the award ceremony of the contest called, "Learning Turkish Step by Step for International Foreigners," and expressed his feelings as follows: "I congratulate those young teachers who call themselves 'The Cavaliers of Light.' We see that children coming from different parts of the world speak Turkish. This is epical "
Yes, this is the epic of the 'deep Turkey.' The epics are being converted into writing years later and are being read. However, for us, we are experiencing these epics. Children from 24 countries are in Istanbul, from America to Russia, from Macedonia to Georgia, from Mongolia to South Africa. They are receiving medals for using Turkish correctly and speaking it fluently.
The 'deep Turkey' is the Turkey of those who hold the belief that 'we will give humanity much more than what we get from it.' Holding this belief and saying, 'we are also in the humanity race,' the architects of the 'deep Turkey' have expanded the Turkish schools to almost every part of the world, by establishing companies and foundations with the help of voluntary organizations, and at the same time, giving historic support for Turkish to become a world language. As a matter of fact, speaking at the award ceremony, Turkish Language Institute (TDK) President Prof. Sukru Haluk, drawing attention to this issue, said: "I congratulate the teachers and architects of this project, who are making enormous efforts in order for Turkish to become a world language."
Now and then, we hear people criticizing Turkish schools abroad because the language of instruction is English. It is not necessary to explain how English is important today, especially in the world of business, economy, science and tourism. Education in English, given in the Turkish schools that are located in the Eurasia geography, has been so effective that the need for the English staff in the Turkic Republics, that have just begun to integrate with the outside world, is almost completely met by the graduates of these schools. A majority of the students sent to the West by their governments, for masters and doctorate degrees, are also graduates of these schools.
However, what I actually want to say is this: Those who criticize education in English in the Turkish schools, ignore the service rendered by these schools in spreading Turkish. Personally, I would very much like our dear Oktay Sinanoglu, whom I became acquainted with at the Gercek magazine in Ankara in 1976, and our dear former Culture Minister Namik Kemal Zeybek, to attend the award ceremony in Istanbul and listen to young people from various parts of the world reading the 'Canakkale Sehitleri' (To The Martyrs Of Canakkale) by Mehmet Akif Ersoy.
I want to dwell upon another aspect of this issue. For the generations, broken off from their roots, a foreign language might become a tool to be distanced from the heart of the nation. It can drag them into the orbit of foreign cultures. However, for the generations that are attached to their national values and essence, every foreign language means a new opportunity, a new tool.
Turkey is getting more familiar and merging with the Turkish world. The presence of Turkish generations in Europe, America and Australia are signs that Turkish will become a world language. From one viewpoint, for our nation to be able express itself to the world and prove its own entity again, depends on Turkish becoming a world language.
I want to end my article with the remarks of the esteemed Fethullah Gülen, who is the greatest architect of the Turkish schools:
"I want to present a subjective evaluation. I have always had a different kind of love, even an aspiration for Turkish all along. For example, if I had the ability to write effectively both in Arabic, the language of the Koran, and Turkish, I would have preferred Turkish and would have wanted to include in my lines the poetic expression of Baki in the Sultanu's-suara (sultan of the poets), the depth of meaning of Sheikh Galip and the sincerity of Mehmet Akif Ersoy."
ZAMAN
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