Turkish President’s Suggestion Results In Turkish Language Classes For Tunisian High Schools

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Tunisian media is reporting that for the first time, the Turkish language will be taught a Tunisian high schools following a suggestion from Turkish President Abdallah Gül  According to a Tunisia Live report:

04 June 2012 | Tunisian Minister of Education Abdellatif Abid announced yesterday that for the first time, the Turkish language will be taught at a number of Tunisian high schools in the upcoming academic year. The decision was announced during a ‘Reading Day’ ceremony in Carthage. Hamida Hedfi, the director of secondary schools at the ministry, said that this is an introductory step, and that the language will be taught only in a few schools. ‘This is just a preliminary experiment, and it will be offered only in some schools in Tunis, Bizerte, and Nabeul,’ he said. Hedfi explained that there have been a number of requests for Turkish to be taught in high schools. ‘Some students asked for the Turkish language to be taught in their schools,’ he stated. This decision was made following a suggestion from the delegation visiting Tunisia with Turkish President Abdallah Gül two months ago. Aside from meeting with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and other high-ranking government officials, Gül also visited Sadiki secondary school – an institution that was originally constructed during the Ottoman era – located in downtown Tunis. Hedfi clarified that Turkish language studies will not be mandatory. Other optional languages taught in Tunisian schools include Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. ‘Now Turkish will be added to the list,’ Hedfi stated. ‘The language will help those who plan on studying in Turkey, and it will open new horizons for our students,” Hedfi concluded.

In October of last year, the Tunisian Enahda Party was victorious in Tunisia’s first democratic election. Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) is the leader of the Tunisian Islamist movement known as Enahda and can best be described as an independent Islamist power center who is tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood though his membership in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and his important position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations led by Global Muslim Brotherhood Youssef Qaradawi. An Egyptian news report has identified Ghannouchi  as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood “abroad.” Ghannouchi is also one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world. Ghannouchi is known for his thinking on the issue of Islam and citizenship rights. Earlier posts reported on the return of Mr. Ghannouchi to Tunisia following his long exile in the UK.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has published a report titled “Turkey, the Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla” whose abstract states:

There is strong evidence for Turkish governmental involvement in the Gaza flotilla incident, with Turkish government support channeled through the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood. 

With respect to the Global Muslim Brotherhood, report’s second conclusion states:

The Gaza flotilla incident brought into sharp focus an even more significant long- term development: the growing relationship between the Erdogan government and the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which has given rise to some of the most notorious Islamist terrorist groups – from al-Qaeda to Hamas. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip acted as the main axis for this activity.

Read the rest here.

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