Thousands of teachers and education union members held demonstrations in Ankara, İstanbul and other Turkish provinces on Friday to protest violence in schools and demand safe working conditions for teachers after an İstanbul high school principal was murdered by a former student earlier this week.
İbrahim Oktugan, the 74-year-old principal of a private high school in İstanbul’s Fatih district, was shot twice by a former student identified only by the initials Y. K. on May 7. Oktugan died in the hospital, while the student, who was detained by the police, was arrested by a court on May 8.
The state-run Anadolu agency reported, citing another teacher at the school, that Y. K. had been expelled in December due to misbehavior. He was reported by some media outlets as being a Turkish citizen of Iraqi origin.
In the capital of Ankara, thousands of union-member teachers launched a work stoppage on Friday. They gathered in front of Education Ministry headquarters and marched to parliament, calling on the government to take measures to stop violence at schools.
They held placards saying “Put a stop to violence in education,” while also chanting slogans such as “Minister, resign,” “United, we will prevail,” “Long live teacher solidarity” and “The teachers are here, where is the minister?”
Teachers observed a minute of silence in honor of Oktugan. who lost his life while at work.
“The discrediting [of teachers] paved the way for this murder. [The reason for it] is the government, which tries to humiliate us at every opportunity,” the teachers said in a statement to the press. They called on the education ministry to urgently enact a law on the prevention of violence in schools in consultation with education unions.
Union-member teachers also launched a work stoppage in İstanbul and marched from the Beyazıt tram stop to the İstanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education.
The group, which chanted the slogans “We don’t want to die in schools,” “Speak up, say no to violence in education,” “We will win by resisting” and “Punishment for violence, security for educators,” was applauded by many passers-by.
Hüseyin Tosu from the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions’ (KESK) İstanbul branch read the joint statement on behalf of the professional organizations.
Tosu said the principal’s murder was not the result of a simple temper tantrum nor was it related to the fact that the perpetrator was a student or an “Iraqi national.”
“The fact that education authorities have pointed to teachers as the ones responsible for the negativities in education in their statements … [and] the ministry’s decision to leave teachers and administrators as the sole interlocutors to parents/students instead of finding solutions to the problems in education have paved the way for what is happening today,” Tosu added.
The group called for the drafting of an action plan for all educational institutions, outlining concrete measures to be taken to combat violence and to ensure deterrent penalties for perpetrators.
The principal’s murder was used by some to promote their anti-refugee discourse in Turkey since the perpetrator of the murder was of Iraqi origin.
Geert Wilders, an anti-Islamic Dutch politician notorious for his anti-refugee discourse, also used the incident to criticize Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whom he held responsible for the murder, due to his welcoming of millions of refugees in Turkey.
Arab immigrant kills Turkish teacher. President @RTErdogan is responsible for inviting millions of Arabs into #Türkiye. He doesn’t seem to care that Turkish people are killed, women harassed, and Atatürks secularism destroyed. Why do you love Arabs more than Turks Mr President?…
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) May 9, 2024
According to the World Migration Report 2024 from the International Organization for Migration, which was published Tuesday, Turkey is still the leading host country for refugees worldwide, with a population of nearly 3.6 million individuals seeking shelter, mainly from war-torn Syria.