Tens of thousands of people flocked to the streets of Ankara March 27 to protest the government-backed education reform bill, only hours before it was set to be debated in Parliament, potentially igniting a fresh row between lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) gathered more than 20,000 people in Tandoğan Square in Ankara, where it turned its weekly parliamentary group meeting into a rally, while some women’s associations also protested the government outside Parliament. Expected to last not less than a week, the parliamentary debate over the education reform bill, publicly known as 4+4+4, began on March 27 afternoon.
“This bill is divisive. This is not 4+4+4. It is 8/2. It divides the society into two. If you break the foundation of a building into two pieces, it will be demolished. If you break 8 years of mandatory education into two tiers, the result will be demolition. But those demolished by this will be our children,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said, stressing that his party will say no to a “dictatorship mentality.”
During the unprecedented group meeting, CHP supporters waved Turkish flags and carried banners saying “4+4+4: not a solution to child brides,” “The solution is 1+8+4,” and “You cannot choose your profession at 10 years of age,” while chanting slogans such as “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism,” and “One day the AKP will be accountable to the people.”
He also said the CHP is not against religious education, but the AKP uses religion for political gain. “If you want to improve religious education, we are not against it. The CHP is respectful of all beliefs. We respect pious people, but we are against those who are revengeful and hypocritical. You [Erdoğan] are revengeful and hypocritical. You are using religion for your own political gain,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
EU Minister Egemen Bağış played down the CHP rally and vowed the AKP would not back down on the bill. “Let them gather at Tandoğan. The people will only laugh at them. The government will not give up on the educational needs of the nation just because some people are putting up a show and blocking traffic in Ankara,” Bağış said.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, urged the AKP to drop the bill and agree to seek a compromise with the opposition. He called on the CHP to “act calmly and cool-headedly in the spirit of democracy.”
