The role of the official ceremonies and hidden curriculum on Atatürkism’s socialization and indoctrination in Turkish schools (1980–2002)

The 1980 military coup in Turkey enormously impacted state-citizen relations, including in the realm of education. After the coup, all school rituals, ceremonies, classrooms, and after-school activities were re-defined through laws and regulations to indoctrinate the dominant state ideology, Atatürkism (Atatürkçülük). This article attempts to shed light on this socialization strategy. It refers relies on an oral history of student testimonies from different socio-economic, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. The testimonies reveal the weaknesses of the system. In particular, the excessive emphasis on Atatürk’s personality and the denial of the Kurdish identity appeared as the most significant fragilities of the system. In addition, the exclusion of non-Muslim citizens from the definition of Turkishness and their feeling of being singled out may be seen as another deficiency of post-1980 state-society relations.