Baykal: Celik Is Corroding Secularism

Deniz Baykal, the leader of Republican People's Party (CHP), who criticized the motion providing an advantage for the graduates of Preachers' Schools (IHLs) in university entrance test (OSS), said that the government had covert plans to open the education to religious influences. Moreover, Baykal accused Education Minister Huseyin Celik of “corroding the secular order” and said, “It is bad to see that those, who could not digest secularism, are governing our education system.”Meanwhile, in his speech inaugurating the new academic year in the Koc University, Education Minister Huseyin Celik said, “We have no problem with principal qualities of the Republic, or with democratic, secular, and social rule of law. No one has the right to put pressure on religion and science. We should avoid generating conflicts by depicting science as if it was an alternative to God’s revelations.”Kemal Guruz, the Chairman of the Higher Education Board (YOK), who delivered a speech in the same ceremony, said that it was impossible to talk with those who denied the superiority of human intelligence. Guruz said, “The Universities of Turkey were gifted to Turkey by Ataturk and his warriors to substitute institutions, which denied the superiority of human intelligence. We are the representatives of this mission and we are determined to continue it no matter what the cost of it will be.” Hurriyet’s Columnist said this morning on NTV channel that “There is a big IHL exploitation in Turkey. Except the previous government (Let by Ecevit), all governments exploited this issue. They even admitted girls to these schools, even though girls can not preach in the Moslem religion. What is the reason of hundreds of thousands of IHL graduates in this country? Their intention is to exploit this, and make them especially judges, prosecutors and district attorneys.”�