The commission's chairman, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Zafer Üskül, deputy chairman, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Yozgat deputy Mehmet Ekici and Republican People's Party (CHP) Sivas deputy Malik Ecder Özdemir held a press conference at Parliament, disclosing the findings of their investigation. The probe centered around claims that a literature teacher working at the Ali Kul Multi-program High School in Esenler, İstanbul, had exerted pressures on one Alevi student and beaten another.

Üskül said the teacher in question had asked a female student who was eating in the classroom during Ramadan "why she did not fast, whether she is Alevi, and whether there were other Alevis in the classroom." When a male student responded by saying that he was Alevi, the teacher exerted physical violence on him and dropped his grades.

Üskül said that upon application by the male student's father to the commission, they had set up a sub-commission to investigate the issue. He added that they interviewed the school administration, several students and teachers, the boy and his father. He also noted that the district education directorate, too, was investigating the issue. The commission chairman announced that the teacher had first been sent to another school and then removed from active duty.


Todayszaman