The French teachers have been in an irregular limbo for six months, without renewal of their contracts or residency permits

French teachers in Turkey feel hostage to an Erdogan-Macron tug of war

photo_camera PHOTO/AFP - Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Emmanuel Macron

Some 20 French university lecturers in Turkey feel "hostage" to a political struggle between French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as they are forced to demonstrate a good command of the Turkish language in order to continue working, one of them told Efe. 

"We have come to work at a university that symbolises Franco-Turkish friendship, but now we are hostages to a political game between France and Turkey, with which we have nothing to do," complains a professor at the French-speaking Galatasaray University, created in 1992 in Istanbul by a bilateral agreement. 

Limbo of irregularity

French teachers have been in an irregular limbo for the past six months, without renewal of their contracts or residence permits, due to the imposition of new rules. 

Contacted by Efe, several of them, without wishing to identify themselves, have agreed in attributing this situation to the political tensions between Erdogan and Macron. 

"It all started in December", says one of those interviewed. He then received a phone call informing him that the renewal of his residence permit, applied for every year in September, would be refused if he did not prove a B2 level of Turkish, i.e. a fluent command of the language. 

The rule "is not only sudden but illegal, because the bilateral agreement signed 25 years ago makes no mention of language level and establishes that any change must be communicated one year in advance", he says. 

It is clear, all agree, that this is a retaliation for the new law that requires all foreign teachers working in France to have a B2 in French in order to teach the children of immigrants their language of origin. 

French fear of Islamism

Paris renegotiated this agreement with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Serbia and Croatia, but due to its accusation that Turkish teachers are spreading Islamist ideology in French schools, it had a long-running battle with Ankara. 

Atalayar_policía Francia

Add to this the 'law against separatism', introduced last autumn by Macron as a means of fighting Islamism and criticised by Erdogan as a direct attack on Islam, and France has become enemy number one in the conservative Turkish press. 

French teachers in Turkey fear that the new rules imposed on them by Ankara could undermine the quality of the French-speaking university: "In the end, I was able to take my exam, fortunately I have the required level, but what about those who have only been here for a year or have just arrived? How are they going to know Turkish at B2 level? It's not like they're geniuses," says one. 

"There are teachers who come with research contracts of one or two years; for them it makes no sense to prepare for this exam. They will stop coming. The quality of the university will go down," predicts another. 

"We are blocked" is a recurring phrase. "The French ambassador has told us that the issue will be resolved in a forthcoming conversation between Macron and Erdogan. It will be a negotiation; it is practically certain that Erdogan will ask for something. But France is not ready to give up much. We are not that important either", reflects another. 

Added to this is the fact that "there has been a wave of French disinvestment in Turkey lately. Paris doesn't want to invest any more money, and the foreign ministry is cutting the budget for teachers' salaries abroad", he adds. 

Control of the university

But while one blames the problem on "incompetence" on the part of the Turks, "who wanted to adopt a measure similar to the French one, a political gesture without measuring the consequences", another believes that the problem goes beyond that. 

Atalauar_Universidad Estambul protestas

"The bottom line is the intention to take back the university. Since 2016, all the rectors who have been appointed have been conservative, close to Erdogan's party; at Bogaziçi University there are protests against the new rector and at Galatasaray they are trying to put pressure on foreign lecturers, because they have a critical spirit, and they can't stand that. The rest is a pretext," he reflects. 

In the meantime, everyone continues to teach as if nothing is happening, trusting in the future. Because they don't want the students to pay the price for the conflict. "Fortunately, for the moment, with the pandemic, it's all virtual classes, that avoids problems," laughs one teacher.

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