Gendarmerie Deputy General Commander General Hüseyin Kurtoğlu, regarding the incidents that took place in schools in Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş, said, "After these incidents, it became clear that an in-school risk assessment also had to be made. We started to re-do the risk assessments of all schools together with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with the same software for inside and outside the school. As of today, we have completed 75 percent of this. We will enter the next academic year with these new risk assessments made." he said.
The Parliamentary Research Commission, which was established to investigate the incidents that occurred in schools in Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş and the risks and negative effects that children face in digital environments in all aspects, to develop solution suggestions and to determine the measures to be taken to prevent similar events, convened under the chairmanship of AK Party Tokat Deputy Yusuf Beyazıt.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Beyazıt said that July 15 Democracy and National Unity Day is not only a commemoration day, but also one of the strongest symbols of transferring the national will, commitment to democracy, and the spirit of unity and solidarity from generation to generation.
Stating that they will also listen to public institutions and organizations, social media channels, film and TV series production companies, Beyazıt stated that content that encourages violence, peer bullying, cyber bullying, digital addiction, abuse of personal data and the impact of algorithms on children have reached levels that cannot be ignored.
"The basic approach of our commission is to produce realistic, applicable and permanent solutions in the light of scientific data, expert opinions and information obtained from the field, not with any prejudice. We will develop suggestions that will implement a holistic approach that is based on the safety of our children, strengthens the family, supports educational institutions and places responsibility on digital platforms."
CHP Kahramanmaraş Deputy Ali Öztunç, who asked to speak before the presentations of the institutions, stated that they condemned the July 15 coup attempt and said, "Doesn't the FETO organization have political ties? It does. Unless the politicians are held accountable for this and that foot is not cut off, the fight against FETO will not be credible."
In the presentation of Tarıkhan Çetiner, Head of the Public Order Department of the Police Department, in the operations carried out after the attacks in Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş, 2 long-barreled weapons, 150 rifles, 46 pistols, 77 blank pistols, 46 toy guns and rifles, 996 mobile phones, 221 cutting-piercing tools, 7 thousand 16 cartridges, many computers and digital materials were seized, 434 suspects and 2 thousand 666 people were seized. It was stated that action was taken against the child who was dragged into crime and 238 people were sent to prison.
Cemal Baybars Düzdemir, Branch Manager of the Anti-Terrorism Department of the General Directorate of Security, made a presentation on "Individual Radicalization".
Stating that the child was "indoctrinated" into the organization's propaganda through social media channels during the attack on the police station in Izmir last year, Düzdemir stated that the child could reach radicalization that could lead to armed action with the ideological goals he achieved here.
"The critical point here is that this child's family was contacted by his teachers, with the determination that this child was prone to radicalization. However, unfortunately, no notification reached our Police Department or other law enforcement officers, and as a result, we lost 3 martyrs. A similar issue happened in Çorum. It was not reported in the press because it was an issue that was prevented beforehand. This child also tended towards similar radicalization, and was suspended from school after it was detected. Since we detected it beforehand, he was subjected to judicial proceedings before he could harm anyone."
Explaining that they want students with a tendency to become radicalized by the Directorates of National Education to be identified through school counselors and reported to the relevant law enforcement units, Düzdemir said, "We think that in order to prevent the teacher from being visible, an application can be created and the teacher can be reported to the law enforcement officers anonymously. Perhaps a guidance activity or rehabilitation activity can be carried out by the Ministry of Family and Social Services for children who are determined to have a tendency to become radicalized." he said.
Evren said that in order to protect children from the risks they may encounter in digital media and the harmful content of social media, they suggested that GSM operators implement the "child line" application via SIM card and IMEI by making changes to the legislation.
A member of parliament from Kahramanmaraş and Şanlıurfa asked: "What preventive measures were taken regarding the school attacks? Could they have been prevented? What kind of investigation did they undergo?" In response to the question, Deputy Chief of Police Mahmut Çorumlu said, "Our Ministry has assigned inspectors regarding this matter, and if there is negligence or fault, the investigation continues. It is not right to answer the question of whether it could have been prevented before it was finished. As far as I know, the inspectors' report is finished. It will be explained anyway. The answer can be found." he replied.
Gendarmerie Deputy Commander General Hüseyin Kurtoğlu stated that the risk assessments showed that the schools where the incidents occurred were not risky and added:
"After these incidents, something emerged that an in-school risk assessment also needs to be made. Together with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we started to re-do the risk assessments of all schools. As law enforcement, we started to re-do the risk assessments of all schools, starting from the security situation of the outer area, social environment habits, and while we are there, there are also data such as the situation of students and teachers inside the school, the numerical number of students, etc. Our Ministry of National Education started to enter these and as of today, we have completed 75 percent of it. We will enter the next academic year with these new risk assessments made.
Absolute prevention of crime is utopian. As the Gendarmerie General Command, we have limited our personnel to 3 weapons, we do not provide weapons other than 3 weapons, but the situation of our civilian citizens is a little different. "The activity on this issue has not been fully established or reached its conclusion yet, but there is an activity related to this."
Mustafa Otrar, General Director of Special Education and Guidance of the Ministry of National Education, stated that there is an obligation to report cases of neglect and abuse and said, "We do not have a legislation that will protect our teachers who report them. I am an academician who graduated as a guidance counselor and psychological counselor in my past. I have received many cases from my students and they say: 'I am afraid now, I want to report them, but who will protect me?'"
Commission President Beyazıt stated that the teachers of the Kahramanmaraş attacker said, "The child does not listen to the lesson, the child sleeps in the lessons" and said, "The child has no social relations, there is nothing environmental, and the guidance teacher has already determined this, as have the guidance counselors in the primary school. But a mechanism cannot work and treat this, it cannot solve this problem. Therefore, the Supreme Parliament should make an effort in this regard to establish a mechanism that can provide this solution. We are evaluating them." he said.
General Director of the Ministry of National Education, Innovation and Educational Technologies (YEĞİTEK), Mustafa Canli, stated that families generally do not have two basic skills that can follow or know what their children are doing in the digital world and said, "One is digital skills, that is, the child's family does not know how to use the child's computer as much as the child or at least enough to follow it, and is not familiar with the technologies in this regard. Or even if he has some technological skills, his lack of language skills, that is, not knowing English, is still an obstacle in this regard." he said.