‘Blue Homeland’ debuts at Turkish schools
The doctrine which violates international law will be taught in 9th grade geography
Taking another step in its promotion of the “Blue Homeland” doctrine that violates international law, Turkey has included the theory in the 9th grade geography textbooks of the country’s high schools (age 14).
The syllabus includes problematic exhortations to teachers to give examples of “Turkey’s struggle against unjust claims that ignore the country’s legitimate and geographical interests in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.”
However, these maps are general and not designed on the basis of those promoted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself, which, among other things, presented half of the Aegean as Turkish. The maps do not include the geographical boundaries that were used extensively by its initiators, in front of which Ergogan was even photographed.
In the map accompanying the relevant extract, the phrase “Blue Homeland” appears without any other indication and there is only reference to the four seas surrounding Turkey without any borders or boundaries (the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea).
The wording used in the book to describe the “Blue Homeland” includes all of Turkey’s problematic positions, even if only implicitly. Basically, Turkey’s Ministry of Education didn’t give visual clarity to the “Blue Homeland,” but maintained its substance.
The textbook states that the concept of the “Blue Homeland” includes “the maritime areas of Turkey’s responsibility declared in accordance with international law as well as in accordance with Turkey’s rights and interests. As well as lakes, rivers and all water sources.”
It also states that “the area of Turkey reaches 780,000 square kilometers” (i.e. the current area of the Republic of Turkey), adding that there are “areas of Turkey’s sovereignty that are within the boundaries of the National Oath and these are the borders of the Blue Homeland, which is the part of the homeland in the seas.”
The 1920 “National Oath,” which is still invoked by Turkish nationalists today, stated that Turkey’s “legal borders” include areas such as Western Thrace, the Dodecanese, Northern Iraq etc.
The new educational program announced in July and called “The Century of Turkey” promulgated maps related to the “Blue Homeland” and the “Sky Homeland,” representing Turkey’s sovereignty rights in its airspace and upper stratospheric regions.
