In the last week a number of media
sources have reported that the Turkish Credit and Dormitories Institution for
Higher Education has decided to stop all loan and housing assistance to students
who engage, among other things, in “behaviors that violate the right to
education such as acts of resistance, boycott, occupation, writing or drawing graffiti
or chanting slogans.” (To see one of these articles, please visit https://t24.com.tr/haber/direnis-ve-boykota-katilan-slogan-atan-ogrencilere-ogrenim-kredisi-yok/235591.)
I strongly regard the institution’s decision as an attempt by the government to
put a hold on students’ political preferences and civil liberties. On the other
hand, we need to be aware that this type of understanding of social policy is not
entirely novel. It seems to me to be related to the nearly global trend for a
shift from a rights-based to a conditions-based approach to social policy. In
fact, this shift has often allowed social policy in Turkey to be reduced to
some form of charity work or bribery in an attempt to create electoral loyalty among
lower classes of society. I find this to be alarming. If we do not fight
against such attempts promptly, we run the risk that one day they will become so
firmly embedded in our culture that nobody can see why they should be harmful
to democracy any more. We need to act now!
