Soft conquest: Erdogan using Maarif Foundation to spew his venom around the world

Mahmud al-Batakoshi

In this new episode of our series on the use by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of soft power to serve his expansionist agenda, we will focus on the role the Turkish Maarif Foundation plays in this regard.

The foundation is instrumental in Erdogan’s use of the schools to produce a new generation of people who are only loyal to Turkey.

It opens new schools everyday and everywhere with this goal in mind.

The Turkish Maarif Foundation was established in 2016 after the ruling Justice and Development Party passed into law a bill on endowments.

The bill made the foundation responsible for the establishment of schools around the world.

The schools founded by the foundation work to spread specific ideas, including the superiority of the Ottoman race. This is part of what is known as Neo-Ottomanism, a mix of Erdogan’s radical ideology and Islamist radicalism.

Erdogan works to establish the schools of Maarif foundation everywhere in the world with the aim of infiltrating foreign societies and influencing the policies of other countries. In doing this, he uses rampant poverty and ignorance in these countries.

The schools do nothing but exaggerate the achievements of the Turkish president and glorify his Islamist model, one he works to use in controlling the world. The schools also work to put an end to Turkish secularism.

Erdogan also uses the schools of the Maarif Foundation in tightening the noose around Hizmet Movement of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen.

The Turkish government has already taken over the schools of Hizmet Movement and given their management to the Turkish Maarif Foundation.