This document is available to everyone and anyone for classroom use and/or study. You may modify it in any way you wish and you need not credit Seton Hall.
If you have a lesson plan of your own, on one of the three major monotheistic religions or especially in their interactions, please consider submitting it to us at .
Modern Turkey
Grades: 10-12
Suggested Time: 1-2 class periods
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Consider the relationship between religion and society in Turkey.
2. Learn about the recent rise of the AKP, a party with Islamic roots.
Resources / Materials:
-student journals
-pens/pencils
-paper
-Segments of the Frontline documentary, “Muslims” which deal with Turkey, especially the parts where a headscarf-wearing, female member of parliament is booed and denied her seat.
-copies of “In Turkey, Fear About a Religious Lifestyle.”
-copies of Britannica’s “Turkey Under Mustafa Kemal” article.
-any other resources on Ataturk and modern Turkey that come to mind, including world history and religion texts, encyclopedias, and computers with Internet access
-classroom map of the world
Background Discussion
1. What reforms did Mustafa Kemal Ataturk make in Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s?
2. How popular were the reforms with rural Turks?
3. How democratic would you say that Ataturk’s government was?
4. What sectors of society did Ataturk and his governing associates come from?
Questions
1. Who were the protesters at the rally in Ankara? (secular or religious? Urban or rural? Affluent or working class?)
2. What concerns to secular Turks have about the prime minister, Recip (pronounced “rejip.”) Tayyip Erdogan?
3. What evidence from the personal lives of Prime Minister Erdogan and his associates do the protesters use to indicate that the Prime Minister has a secret agenda?
4. What demographic changes have occurred in Turkey in recent decades that led to a strengthening of religious parties?
Vocabulary
secularism; demographic; statism