Turkey's Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar delivers a speech during the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul, Sunday, August 7, 2016. Depo Photos/Press Association. All rights reserved. It is quite common for a military regime to change the names associated with public spaces (e.g., squares, avenues, streets) and public institutions (e.g., schools, hospitals), particularly if these are associated with a previous regime or ideologies designated as subversive or simply as the “arch-enemy”. After the 12 September 1980 coup in Turkey, for instance, the military regime in Turkey cleansed public spaces and institutions of “unsuitable” names.
But it is not only the military who are interested in renaming schools. For as long as militarism is considered a viable ideology, civilian governments can also be intent on naming schools after military figures, events, or martyrs. That is exactly what has happened in Turkey. Turkey is now full of schools named after martyrs.
Under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has ruled Turkey since 2002, this militarist practice intensified:
