Having grown up in Turkey in the 1970s, one of my most vivid recollections is of a collective nationalist ritual. At the start of every week, weather permitting, we would gather in the school playground and line up immaculately like little soldiers. We would sing the national anthem and then recite the “student oath”.
I don’t recall paying much attention at the time to the sentences I repeated out loud. I am embarrassed to say that as a child I might have thought the whole thing a nuisance rather than anything else. But the oath went like this:
“I am a Turk, I am honest, I am hardworking.
My tenet is to protect the young, respect my elders, to love my country and my nation more than my own self.
My goal is to improve and to advance.
O great Atatürk! I swear to walk incessantly on the path that you have paved towards the goals you have set.
May my existence be dedicated to the Turkish existence
Happy is the one who says ‘I am a Turk.’”
In early March, Turkey’s Council of State, the highest administrative court in the country, declared that the recitation of this oath will no longer be part of the daily routine for young Turkish students. It was met with condemnation from various parts of the Turkish political spectrum.
