Addressing the Fifth Religion Council on Dec. 8, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to make Ottoman-era Turkish a compulsory course in high schools. “Turkey’s scholars and intellectuals are fortunately standing tall despite 200-year-long pressures trying to cut us from our roots,” Erdogan said. “Teaching Ottoman [-era Turkish] is debated for five days in the [National Education] Council. Yet there are those who are troubled by this country’s students learning Ottoman.” He added: “Whether they like it or not, Ottoman will be taught and learned in this country.”

Despite this stern narrative, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu played it down. “Those students who wish to study it may take it as an elective course, and those who don’t want to study it — don’t! This is what is being proposed at the [National Education Council],” Davutoglu said Dec. 8. “It is not possible to understand this allergy toward our historical background and our culture.”

Yet, the initial proposal at the National Education Council was to make Ottoman-era Turkish a mandatory course. After a series of reactions to the proposal, mainly from the opposition and ordinary people, the council rolled back and suggested making it an elective course. It is not that Ottoman-era Turkish is not taught at Turkish schools: It is. However, the government aims to develop a new synergy, creating a trend particularly among the country’s youth, to study Ottoman-era Turkish.

Erdogan argues that since Sultan Mahmud II initiated political reforms in 1839, “That is to say for almost 200 years, some issues could not be discussed freely with self-confidence and brevity. The religion, which is at the heart of all matters in Turkey, could not be discussed objectively, in an unbiased fashion, free of fears and neighborhood pressure. In fact, forget about discussing all those matters related to religion in a free fashion; religion and practicing Muslims for 200 years came under systematic criticism, insults and belittling.”