Religion in camps in Turkey for Turkish Cypriot students
“President Erdogan wants to strengthen Islam in the northern part of Cyprus as well. As everything shows, part of the plan is to invite Turkish Cypriot children in Turkey to camps, where systematic lessons about Islam are held”, the German Journalism Network RND writes in response from Athens under the title “How Erdogan educates Turkish Cypriots in Turkey in camps”.
“Volleyball, horse riding, theater, art: the program in which 46 students from the north of Cyprus participate is rich. Instead, however, the young Turkish Cypriots found themselves taking lessons about Islam. Such summer activities are part of the Turkish president’s plan to foster religious sentiment among Turkish Cypriots.
The camps are organized by the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sports in collaboration with the Turkish Cypriot Education Service. The program is mainly aimed at the economically weaker Turkish Cypriot families, who cannot afford to send their children on vacation. From the very first day of the Turkish Cypriot students in the camp, the tears started. Many were those who called their parents asking them to come and get them, writes the Greek Cypriot newspaper Cyprus Mail. Instead of sports, the children were expecting Koran lessons and prayers.
Religion used to play no role
When the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus began in 1974, 80% of the total population of Megalonisos were Greeks and 18% Turks. Since then, however, Ankara has moved more than 100,000 settlers from mainland Turkey to Cyprus. Already today half of the population in the northern part of the island are Turkish settlers, which does not only change the demographic composition of the population. It also changes the population’s relationship with religion. Despite the fact that 99% of Turkish Cypriots are Muslim, religion used to play no role either in everyday life or in Education.
All this has changed in the last 20 years since Erdogan took the reins of the country. Tayyip Erdogan’s aim to strengthen Islam in Turkey is felt in northern Cyprus as well, as evidenced by the number of mosques being built according to the president’s wishes in the northern part of the divided island.”
DW: Stefanos Georgakopoulos
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