Turkey’s Ministry of Education is going to teach preschool children about a botched coup attempt on July 15, 2016 during summer school, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, the ministry asked that children aged between 54-66 months attend summer school before starting elementary school in September.
While the objectives of the summer school training were described as development of cognitive, social, emotional and linguistic skills, the ministry asked summer schools to offer lessons to the children about the coup attempt as “July 15 Democracy and National Unity Day.”
Turkey’s Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz previously announced that the July 15, 2016 coup attempt would be part of the new curriculum in schools.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup.
The Turkish government initiated a widespread purge within state institutions targeting the faith-based Gülen movement and dissidents.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry recently announced that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup in Turkey.
