ALEPPO COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – Students and residents of Azaz region, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, northwest Syria, say that prioritizing Turkish language in education and obtaining job opportunities impedes them from obtaining certificates and appropriate jobs.
Since early in 2017/2018, the Turkish language has become compulsory in schools, in addition to changing the textbooks and teaching some materials in the Turkish language.
Activists and observers believe that Turkey is following the Turkification policy in the Syrian north through education and other means in preparation for an expansionist plan or to annex parts of Syria to its territory.
The Turkish forces are controlling different parts in northern Syria through Turkish-backed armed opposition groups in Jarablus, Azaz, al-Bab and Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Additionally, Turkey is running Sere Kaniye (Ras Al-Ain) and Tel Abyad regions in north and northeast Syria, while other Turkish-backed armed opposition groups are controlling the governorate of Idlib.
Since first grades
The ten-year-old Ibrahim Kabso’s family from Azaz, had no choice but to accept the Turkish language, since it was also taught in the early grades of education.
Kabso said that he has faced difficulty in learning Turkish words and their meanings, which the teachers also, have faced difficulty to realize.
“I learnt some common words such as güzel as the teacher uses it to say excellent or good, but I even do not know how to write it,” he added.
Students’ parents believe that imposing the Turkish language to be taught in the early grades impedes their children from learning Arabic language that becomes neglected after prioritizing the Turkish one.
In August, the German Merkur website reported that the Turkish forces in Syria have followed cultural influence in Syria, where the Turkish language has been taught in schools, the Turkish Islam has been spread, and the Turkish lira has been dealt with.
Last week, Turkish officials opened a cultural center in Jarablus, east Aleppo, in light of the continuous Turkification policy followed by Turkey in its Syrian areas of control.
In universities and courses
Turkey has also found Gaziantep University in the northern countryside of Aleppo in 2019.
The Gaziantep University includes three faculties in the Syrian interior, including the Faculty of Education in Afrin, and Faculty of Sharia Sciences in Azaz and the Faculty of Economic Sciences in al-Bab.
On February 5, the Higher Institute of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine was found in al-Ra’i town, north Aleppo, by a decree issued by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Syrian government described this action as occupation and Turkification policy to Syrians territories.
The Psychological Counseling second-year undergraduate student at the Free Aleppo University, Sawsan al-Youssef is subjected to intensive Turkish language courses in order to obtain a job opportunity in a humanitarian or relief organization there.
She told North Press that she has organized her time to complete her study and learn the Turkish language in Anadolu Cultural Center in Azaz at the same time.
“My goal is to obtain a certificate in learning the Turkish language in order to add it to my CV,” she added.
A condition to get jobs
Organizations in the area require well Turkish spoken language or at least, acceptable in order to obtain a vacancy.
“We do not know how many languages we should learn for obtaining a job, knowing Arabic and poor Turkish means that our diplomas are worthless,” al-Youssef noted.
University graduates, who have obtained non-Turkish diplomas, are forced to pass a test on Turkish language grammars in order to be able to get jobs in Turkish organizations.
The Turkish forces in their held-areas in Aleppo countryside, work on the Turkification of the names of the parks, schools and squares, such as the Ottoman Nation Park in Azaz, the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Square, the Bulant Al Bayrek School in Bab.
The Turkish forces and the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups raise the Turkish flag over several headquarters and government boards in their areas of control and they write the names of these departments in both Turkish and Arabic.
Salwa al-Khaled, teacher in Azaz, said that most of the teachers of the elementary grades have not got competencies enabling them to teach the Turkish language, “They went through several courses to learn the basics of the Turkish language.”
Al-Khaled added that some teachers specialized in either Arabic or English, have been subjected to tests in the Turkish languages in order to obtain better job opportunities.