ANKARA: Controversial Text Book About Armenians Sparks Stir In Turke

CONTROVERSIAL TEXT BOOK ABOUT ARMENIANS SPARKS STIR IN TURKEY

Hurriyet

June 28 2012
Turkey

A Turkish minister defends a school book labeling Armenians
‘treacherous.’ DHA photo The Ministry of Education has defended a
school text book that includes slurs about Armenians as well as a
number of Turkish writers, saying the book was “written with the
sense of national reflex and humorous criticism.”

Penned by Yunus Zeyrek, the book, titled “Bu Dosyayı Kaldırıyorum:
Ermeni Meselesi” (“Closing this File: The Armenian Issue”) defines
Armenians as “dishonorable and treacherous” and vilifies novelists
such as Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk and writer Elif Å~^afak.

History and literature teachers distributed the books to students of
their own volition after receiving them.

Humorous criticism

Education Minister Omer Dincer responded a parliamentary question
proposed by Kadir Gökmen Ogut of the opposition Republican People’s
Party (CHP) about the book, saying “the examples in the book were
written with the sense of national reflex and humorous criticism,”
according to a report by daily Taraf.

Ogut asked whether the ministry had approved the handing out of the
book and also whether the content of the book could be considered as
being a form of hate crime. In his response, Dincer said the Ministry
of Education had never recommended the book. “The Governorship of
Istanbul stated that some of the books were presented to students by
the District Governor of Kartal and that nobody was targeted in any
chapter of the book.”

Dincer had earlier announced that the ministry had launched a probe
against a controversial book distributed by the education directorate
among high schools in Istanbul’s Kartal district June/28/2012

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress