Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Mardin deputy Mehmet Ali Aslan asked a parliamentary question to Minister of National Education, Nabi Avcı, about expressions targeting different cultures, beliefs and people and including hate speech in school books and reference books suggested by Ministry of National Education.
Aslan stated 10% of Turkey’s population was Arabic and hate speech should be omitted from those books.
It was indicated that some proverbs and idioms in Turkish related to Arabs were insulting and discriminating like;
“Anladıysam Arap olayım! (Translation: I’ll be an Arab if I understand!) (A Turkish idiom that can be called in English as ‘It’s all Greek to me!)
“Her şey arapsaçına döndü! (Translation: Everything is topsy-turvy like an Arab’s hair!) (A Turkish idiom that phrases everything is very complicated and tangled)
Arabic kids
* Do you realize how these discriminating and humiliating expressions in textbooks hurt the heart and mind of Arabic kids in schools?
* Do you think students from other ethnicities will look Arabic kids and Arabs positively?
Turkish Language Association
* Many sources indicate Arabs are refugees, foreigners. Is it ethical to show citizens of Republic of Turkey, Arabs who have been living in Anatolia and Mesopotamia for thousands of years as foreigners?
* Dictionary of Turkish Language Association (TDK) verbalizes Arabs as “Negros” and “Egyptian peasants”, do you know it?
* Do you know TDK has discriminating proverbs and idioms about Arabic people?
* Will you make a study for omitting these expressions full of mistakes and nonsense from TDK’s dictionary?
Old Turkish films
* Will you make something about old Turkish movies where people called their dogs ‘Arab’?
* Will Ministry of National Education apologize for hate speech, discrimination, humiliation, targeting and false expressions in text and source books about Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Laz , Circassians, Pomaks , Azeris, Mhalmites, Assyrians, Armenians and other fellow peoples living in Turkey? (YY/BD)
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