The Education System in Türkiye Since World War II Amid Military Tutelage and Democratization Efforts

In this paper, I argue that the shift to a multi-party system in 1945 promoted democratic and populist influences within Türkiye’s education system after World War II. During this period, educational cooperation between Türkiye and the United States increased. After the 1960 military coup, state institutions such as the military and the Constitutional Court sought to control civilian politics. In a tutelary democracy, these institutions decided the foundations of the education system, including the Constitution, the Basic Law of National Education, and the Higher Education Law. Although Türkiye has consistently expressed interest in strengthening educational and scientific relations with European countries, this interest significantly increased in the early 2000s, particularly during the intensive European Union accession negotiations. By the 2020s, however, these negotiations had fallen off the agenda. Although the ruling AK Party has taken significant steps to democratize the education system further and improve educational attainment since 2002, it has yet to implement comprehensive education reforms for transforming the highly centralized system burdened by the ideologies of Kemalism and ethnonationalism. Furthermore, despite near-universal agreement on the need to reform Türkiye’s higher education system, no bold steps have been taken.