Erdoğan: We raise the bar in education every day

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has praised Türkiye's advances in education under his rule, citing record membership and book collections in public libraries.

"From preschool to postdoctoral level, we are raising the bar every day with our educational institutions, libraries and youth centers," Erdoğan said at an event in Ankara, which hosted an international conference on librarianship and digital transformation.

Erdoğan highlighted Türkiye's achievements in library development, noting record-breaking growth in public library membership and book collections.

He said the number of members in public libraries affiliated with the Culture Ministry has increased to 6.7 million and the number of books to 25 million. With new libraries set to open in 2026, seating capacity will expand from 800,000 square meters to 1 million square meters, he added.

The president praised Türkiye's "1,300-year-old rooted tradition" in librarianship.

"We have serious expertise in this field. In the states and cities we have built, books and scholars have always been at the center. Our mosque, foundation and madrasa libraries have been the fundamental sources of reliable information in both religious and positive sciences," he said.

"Whenever we have given science the value it deserves, we have achieved the greatest successes in world history. It is then that we have been able to bring our peace, security and prosperity to the level we desired. When we lost touch with science and knowledge, we lost power and became followers rather than leaders.”

Erdoğan criticized the approach of single-party era toward libraries, saying it weakened young people’s connection to their cultural roots.

"Our libraries were turned into piles of bricks by the top-down practices of the single-party mentality. Thick walls were built between them and the past. Young people's connection to their roots was weakened and they were alienated from their civilization," he said.

"An entire generation could neither be Eastern nor Western, they were tossed about between the two. We saw this in many areas of life and experienced it as a nation. However, despite all the negativity we experienced, we managed to get back on our feet."

Turning to domestic politics, Erdoğan sharply criticized the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel.

"Türkiye does not deserve such a tone. When the mind is poor, the intellect becomes arrogant, and the tongue loses its restraint. We have before us a poor individual whose mind and tongue are completely disconnected," he said.

"This person is becoming increasingly aggressive with the lies he tells every day, the slanders he throws at anyone who comes his way and the insults he hurls in public squares. We will not condemn our nation to this increasingly unpleasant language and these poisonous statements."