The Relations Of Education Between France And Turkey During The Atatürk Period

Education is one of the components that show the development level of a country. Atatürk thought it would be possible to be a modern and powerful country only if modern education was formed. Just as the Ottoman Empire which took France as a model for the educational reforms, France also become one of the leading conutries that the new Turkısh Republic benefited from its own experinces. The political relations between two countries affected considerably the education system as in all other areas. As a result, if we look generally at the Ottoman-French relations, there has been few problems except for the last century. The drastic changes in the world, especially after the French Revolution, as in the whole world, affected the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, France was followed in terms of the efforts of modernisation during the process of this change. The World War I, the period of National Independence and the conflict of Hatay were the main problems that affected the relations. The improvement of political and economic relations with France influenced the education system. Thus, The Republic of Turkey focused on the effort of modernization led by Atatürk. Consequently, the young people went to France in order to complete their education through goverment-based aid or through their personal efforts. The purpose of of this study is to focus on the relations of education in the field of education in the modernization process from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic.

Keywords

Atatürk, Education, Educational Institutions, France, Republic of Turkey, Ottoman Empire.