Erdogan using education to fulfill his Neo-Ottomanism dreams

Sara Rashad

The initiative launched recently by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for considering Turkish an international language cannot be viewed in separation from his attempts to spread his country’s influence outside its own borders.

Erdogan’s project

The initiative is connected with the 700 th anniversary of the death of Turkish folk poet Yunus Emre. However, it is also connected with the political Ottoman project adopted by Erdogan since coming to power in his country.

Turkey tries to use its language in infiltrating neighboring countries.

Most of the former Soviet Union republics speak Turkish. This gives Erdogan easy access into these countries.

Turkey also offers scholarships for Arab and African students to entice them to complete their education in it.

According to Abdel-Karim Abdallah, a Chadian postgraduate student in Egypt, Cairo, Casablanca and Algiers used to be the preferred destinations for students from his country.

This, he said, changed a little bit with Turkey competing with these capitals for students from Chad as it does for students from other countries.

Turkey introduces itself as an alternative to these countries, Abdallah said.

He pointed out that this happened almost ten years ago, when Turkish official bodies started offering scholarships for students.

The students study the Turkish curricula in return for financing, Abdallah said.

He noted that these scholarships are warmly welcomed back in his country. Most of the scholarships make it necessary for the students to study in Turkish.

This is a bit difficult for the students, contributing to bringing turnout a bit, he said.

Turkish, he said, is not a universal language, meaning that those who study or master it will not be able to use it outside Turkey.