Erdogen uses Education and students to promotehis colonial policy

Sarah Rashad

The Turkish ways of implementing the expansionist dream of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot be shortened to what might be called the “rough force” represented in the military intervention as there is a parallel presence known as “Soft power”.

Turkey aims to realize its soft power to create a base of supporters for it in the countries of its region, to pass its coarse and expansionist policy, which is what touches today in what is known as the “phenomenon of Turkish Arabs”, or Arabs loyal to Turkey, even if it is in the interests of their countries.

The fall of the Soviet Union coincided with the rise of the Islamists ’star in the legislative elections in Turkey, representatives of the Raffa Party, and unlike the traditional politicians, the Islamists carried expansionist policies that were different from those in which Turkey lived under secular rule, which was satisfied with standing Ankara’s influence at the Turkish geographical borders.

As they dreamed of a Turkish state with regional influence, reminding them of the legacy of the Ottoman Caliphate, Turkey, under the Islamists administration, took advantage of the moment of the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Turkish-speaking countries from it, to extend the rope of communication with them, to be the nucleus of the first Turkish influence abroad.

From this time, Turkey worked to transform itself into a country receiving foreign students, and it started to establish entities and organizations attached to the government whose mission is to facilitate the arrival of foreign students.

It can be said that Turkey recently and specifically began, after what is known as the “Arab Spring”, to introduce Arab students into the targeting circle, as it was for a long time focusing on students of countries with a Turkish language independent of the Soviets.

In a study issued by the Arab and International Relations Forum, entitled “Higher Education and Scholarships: A Soft Power in Turkish Foreign Policy” by the researcher Abdul Qadir Muhammad Ali in 2017, he said: From 2002 to 2011, Turkey managed to adjust its image to the Arab citizen thanks to its strength Soft, as a study conducted by the Zogby International Center in 2002 on Arab citizens, Turkey ranked third after America and Israel as the most negative country, while it ranked first as a positive model in a study conducted in 2011.

The researcher believes that Turkey aims from its work on the educational program to attract the minds of neighboring countries, and influence them so that the student is biased towards the country in which he knows, and then be influential in his country’s policies in favor of Turkey when he returns to it.

That is why Ankara gives importance to the field of politics and economics, as its graduates will be in control of their countries’ policies and alliances in the near future.

The researcher monitors Turkey’s interest in the education file, indicating the budget that Turkey sets to spend on foreign students, as it exceeded 209 million to see Turkey in 2014, while in 2010 it was only 40 million pounds.

The Turkish channels diversify to attract students, between the government grant “Turkey Grant” and the Islamic Development Bank, and to stop the Turkish religion, especially the role of civil society organizations, and student exchange programs.

In a paper entitled “International Student Strategy Document”, developed by the Department of Diaspora Turks and Kinship Communities (YTB) Government in 2012, it recommended some reforms to the education file in Turkey to expand the circle of polarized students, calling for expanding the advantages that students will receive if they agree to move to Turkey from Providing a favorable social and legal environment that makes Turkey a priority over European countries known to receive students.

In turn, he calls the director of the Center for Strategic Research “Posam”, Saeed Belmaz, in a study entitled “What is soft power, and how to implement it” to develop a plan that guarantees maintaining communication with graduates even after they move to their countries.

And demands that a strategy be put in place to ensure that these graduates can be employed in favor of Turkish foreign policy, so that students with Turkish education receive support within their countries; So that they can access leadership positions in their countries.

And Belmaz believes that this will ensure the loyalty of these countries to Turkey or at least link with good policies with it; It included passing Turkish interests.