Turkey's education ministry responds to separate parliamentary questions with identical answer

Serkan Alan / DUVAR

Turkey's Education Ministry has given the same response to two separate parliamentary questions submitted by an opposition deputy.

Since Turkey's political system was transformed from a parliamentary system to an executive presidential one following elections in 2018, the only way that parliament can monitor and audit the country's cabinet ministries is through the submission of an official written question.

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Opposition deputies often wait for long periods of time without getting a reply, while Education Minister Ziya Selçuk recently responded to two different inquiries from pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul deputy Oya Ersoy with the exact same answer.

The inquiries that Ersoy submitted pertained to two separate books that were being distributed in public schools, one of which Ersoy says has sexist content, the other of which was written by Islamist writer Sezai Karakoç and contained disparaging remarks about leftists. Both of the inquiries were filed in February of this year.

Ersoy inquired as to how many schools and students were the recipients of these books, but Selçuk did not respond with those details, instead answering each question with the same generic legally-worded response, saying that all practices in schools go through permission processes.