CHP alleges PM Erdoğan’s son, religious foundations design education in Turkey

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has suggested that Turkey’s education policy was being designed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son, Bilal Erdoğan, in close coordination with five Islamist-leaning foundations.

CHP Secretary General Gürsel Tekin revealed an audio recording that allegedly included Bilal Erdoğan’s conversations aimed at expanding İmam-Hatip high schools, religious vocational schools, across Turkey.

“We used to think the architect of a project for same-sex dormitories had been the education minister of this country. We now understand this country doesn’t have an education minister, it has its ‘Bilal.’ It is Bilal and his friends who decide on the education system. It is saddening, but it is unfortunately so,” Tekin said at a press conference, after playing the audio recording.

The tape is a collection of recordings from different meetings allegedly held by Erdoğan, along with representatives of the Service for Youth and Education Foundation of Turkey (TÜRGEV), the Society for Dissemination of Knowledge, the Ensar Foundation and the Association of Ä°mam Hatip Graduates and Members (ÖNDER) in addition to senior bureaucrats from the Education Ministry, the Provincial Directorate of National Education, the Istanbul Special Provincial Administration and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Bilal Erdoğan is among the board members of TÜRGEV, a charity nongovernmental organization.
In the recordings, participants discuss a wide range of issues related to the education system. But the situation of Ä°mam-Hatip schools and ways of increasing their numbers, as well as increasing the number of sex-same dormitories for...