"Primary school in Shusha"

Devlet Bahçeli, the chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a partner of the Turkish government, is a politician who can draw attention to points that no one can remember with his sudden statements. Given the importance of such a statement made a few days ago, I think it is necessary to present it to the readers as it is: “If our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has the permission and if the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, agrees, we have a goal to build a primary school in Shusha, where 9 textbooks will be studied by the Ülkü Ocakları (Idealist Hearths) Education and Culture Foundation under my direct instructions. All the opportunities we have in this regard will be mobilized and work will begin quickly.”

Maybe Devlet Bahçeli does not even remember the date of his last trip abroad, but his harsh statements about Kirkuk and Telafer remain in Turkey's political memory. At the beginning of the process of liberation of Azerbaijani lands from occupation, the MHP leader demanded "the unification of Nakhchivan with Azerbaijan," and it took about two weeks to explain to the Turkish public that the conversation was about the Zangazur corridor. After the November 10 victory, a draft resolution on the deployment of Turkish troops in Azerbaijan was immediately sent to parliament and adopted the next day. The main expectation of both the Turkish state and the public was that military units would be everywhere in Karabakh. Ankara continued to provide moral support to Baku when the November 10 agreement did not reflect expectations; President Erdoğan's congratulations to the Turkish contingent on the eve of the last day of the year and the fact that the Minister of National Defense, Hulusi Akar, was with the Turkish military on the same days were clear and strong expressions of this. When the processes taking place in the Azerbaijan-Russia-Armenia triangle since the beginning of the year have revealed that Turkey's ability to maneuver in the military field has diminished and the possibility of further expansion in that area (at least around Karabakh) has been limited, it has been considered expedient to expand the scope of "trainings" in the field of moral support as much as possible. Undoubtedly, the MHP leader's proposal "Primary school in Shusha" should be considered as a proposal of the state. There are several well-known reasons for doing this through the MHP, the most important of which is to send the message that "Turkey's voice must come from Karabakh at any cost." And after this message, if it is possible to say so, "it will depend on Baku", and Baku, naturally, will not give the permission that the MHP leader wants. The reasons for this are very simple. First, it is not known what will be the language of school that the MHP leader wants to open in Shusha. If the school is supposed to be in the Azerbaijani language, it seems that Mr. Bahçeli is still unaware of the schools in Shusha that teach in Azerbaijani and Russian at a high level since the middle of the 19^th century. That is, today it is not difficult for Azerbaijan to open a school in the native language in Shusha or to restore the previous schools. If the MHP leader plans to open a 9-textbook primary school in Turkish, then he is unaware of the conditions in the region and has never calculated that a Turkish primary school in a sparsely populated area like Shusha would not be able to accommodate as many students as required. How will it be: what will students, who will read a total of 9 different textbooks in Turkish throughout primary school, do after 4 years? In which language will they study in high school and lyceum? To what extent will the primary school, which will be opened without serious consideration and analysis, help education? For statistics, today the capital, Baku, with a population of about 4 million, has a maximum of 700 students a year from primary school to high school at the Ataturk Lyceum, opened by the Turkish World Research Foundation in 1992. Taking into account the demand, a Turkish businessman opened a private school in the same format two years ago. Including the other two Turkish-funded schools, there are four educational institutions with a total of 3,000 students. In other words, if there are 3,000 students studying Turkish in a city of 4 million, how many students will be found to enroll in Turkish primary school in Shusha, which currently has a population of about 30,000 and where only government officials live and perhaps 10% of the population has not yet returned?

From the very beginning, I considered this proposal of the MHP leader as an attempt at moral consolation...