Afrinpost
The Turkish government, represented by the Higher Education Council, approved a project to expand the Turkish Gaziantep University branch in northwestern Syria, and the Turkish decision stipulated the opening of three new study departments, including a section for teaching mathematics and science, a department for Turkish language and social sciences, and a department for political science and public administration within the College of Economics and Administrative Sciences in the occupied Syrian city of Al-Bab.
Last November, the Turkish University of Gaziantep opened three colleges in northwestern Syria, namely the College of Islamic Sciences, the College of Education in the occupied Kurdish region of Afrin, the College of Economics and Administrative Sciences in the occupied city of Al-Bab, as well as a vocational school in the Syrian occupied border town of Jarablus.
The Turkish State University of Harran has also reached an agreement with the local council of the city of Al-Bab, affiliated to Ankara, to open a branch in the city that includes colleges that cover scientific and literary specializations.
Since August 2016, several cities in northwestern Syria have been under the occupation of the Turkish forces and their affiliated Muslim Brotherhood militias, after Ankara seized a large area of Syrian territory during the military invasion known as the “Euphrates Shield” that enabled the Turks to occupy areas in Aleppo governorate, such as Jarablus and Azaz, and Al-Bab.
In addition, the Kurdish politician, Bangin Seydo, the co-chair of the Free Media Union of the Autonomous Administration, explained through a phone call to the Emirati newspaper, Al-Ittihad, that Ankara was implementing a plan to “Turkify” northwestern Syria, which the Erdogan regime considers part of the “Turkish homeland”. This was stated by the Turkish Interior Minister, Süleyman Soylu, in January 2019.
Ankara sought to spread the Turkish language and culture in the areas under its occupation, and worked to change the names of some villages and neighborhoods from the Arabic and Kurdish languages to Turkish, such as changing the name of the main square in Afrin to Kemal Ataturk Square, and naming the public park in Azaz as the Garden of the Ottoman Nation.
Seydou pointed out that there are political, economic and cultural goals behind the Turkish occupation of regions in the north of Syria, whether from the east or the west, as Erdogan wants to extend his influence in these areas to gradually transform into Turkish regions with a pure Turkish identity and culture.
On the other hand, Abdullah Al-Abo Thani, a political analyst, explained that Erdogan’s attempts to expand inside Syria politically and culturally come within the framework of his expansionist ambitions in the countries of the Arab region, and the realization of his dream of being the Ottoman Caliph of the twenty-first century.
