Back in 2012, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, made a memorable speech to young supporters of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), calling for young generations to “pursue the causes” of their “religion” and “hatred,” among other things. Since then, he has frequently spoken of raising a “devout generation.”

During 14 years of AKP rule, the Education Ministry has seen the longest list of successive ministers, totaling six so far. In 2012, the government made fundamental changes to the education system, expanding religious classes and introducing Arabic, Quranic studies and the life of the Prophet Muhammed as elective courses in public schools. Ironically, some of the country’s earliest secular schools were established during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, a revered figure in AKP ranks, who saw the outdated education system as a key reason why the Ottomans fell behind the West.

Trade unions, academics and opposition parties now argue that Erdogan and the AKP are seeking to build a “parallel education system” of their own to raise the “devout” generations they seek.

Earlier this month, Erdogan and the AKP — seeming unsatisfied with their efforts to transform secular schooling — took a step toward building an education system under their own control and outside the Education Ministry’s institutional framework. Their vision of a controversial educational foundation was presented as a measure to close down schools both at home and abroad run by the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the AKP’s top enemy since 2013, when prosecutors and police executing a massive corruption probe were accused of being Gulenists seeking to topple the AKP.