Students of the Horizon High School in South Africa.

The retired Turkish Naval Forces commander expressed his admiration for the Turkish schools established around the world in comments to Today's Zaman. His comments come one day after The New York Times ran an article praising these schools, which offer both a secular curriculum and encourage a softer version of Islam as an alternative to radical extremism in countries with Muslim populations. The article said, "The model is the brainchild of a Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen."

The former admiral currently lives the life of a peaceful, retired person and asked to remain anonymous to keep his name out of daily polemics.

Turkish schools have been established in more than 80 countries, across four continents. The NYT story on "Gülen schools" coupled with visits by Turkish politicians and military personnel to these schools recently sparked an old but familiar debate.

Secularists at home skeptical of the Gülen network accuse the movement of using the schools to advance its own political agenda.

The former naval commander, however, strongly expressed that he did not agree in the slightest with such accusations. Stating that he had known about these schools for a long time, he said he had never harbored any reservations about any of them, noting that he even sent some of his relatives' children who live abroad to these schools. He opined also that the sacred concept of "modern education" had to be encouraged, regardless of who provides it or where it is found.

The retired admiral, on the other hand, did not fail to draw "red lines" between his military identity and political debates, with the sensitivity of a navy commander.

He noted that as a member of the military his stance is very open and clear, emphasizing that he has never been affiliated with any religious or political groups and recalling that the only things the military and military personnel are accountable to and responsible for are the secular republic and Atatürkism, whose boundaries are determined by law. Yet he retains his sensitive tone when it comes to the Turkish schools, saying that singing and teaching the Turkish national anthem, unfurling the Turkish flag on all continents and educating children at Turkish schools are things to be supported and promoted.

'They should find things to fight other than education'

The retired admiral maintained that not only himself, but also almost all other Turkish statesmen, ambassadors and even foreign diplomats preferred Turkish schools for their children, owing to the high quality of education they offer. He gave a piece of advice to those trying to cripple the activities of these schools: "What they do is a contribution to education, it's not something bad. Education is held as sacred everywhere in the world and is supported. There are no established facts suggesting that these schools are dangerous. Education and these schools are the last thing that should be tampered with and targeted. If they really feel that they have to fight anything, they should find things other than education to fight. Nobody should tamper with those schools."

The retired admiral stressed that the schools in question had been under control of the Turkish Ministry of Education from the beginning, also noting that their activities were in compliance with the principle of "unity of education" -- that they abide by the laws of the countries where they are located and are supervised and controlled by the state. He noted that nothing had been found so far suggesting that these schools provide education around the axis of religion or have anti-secular attitudes, pointing out that the Ministry of Education is the authority to appeal to regarding any complaints concerning them.

He also stated that during a military visit to the Albanian capital of Tirana he had spoken to the principal of the Mehmet Akif Private School, the only Turkish school in the country, to help his relatives' children enroll in the school at a time when they had a very low quota for students. He said the school's officials did not turn him down, which made him as well as his relatives in Tirana very happy. The retired admiral said his relatives were still grateful to him for that act. (Mustafa Sungur, Washington, D.C.)