Türkiye was shaken again by the spiral of violence targeting schools in the first days of the 2026-2027 academic year.
A 9th grade student opened fire near the school with a shotgun in his hand, near İnci Üzmez Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Turgutlu district of Manisa.
In the attack, 11 students were injured, 3 of them seriously, and 1 student was intubated.
While the trauma of teacher Fatma Nur Çelik, who was murdered in Istanbul during the last academic year, and the bloody attacks on schools in Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş has not been overcome, this latest disaster has once again revealed the security weakness in public schools.
Although the Investigation Commission established in the Parliament after the disasters met 27 times and 7 ministries signed protocols, the life safety of children could not be ensured even in front of schools, which were declared a 1st degree risk area.
Pointing out that there have been more than 60 armed attacks on schools since 2000, Education Labor Union Chairman Kadem Özbay explained the painful situation during the term of office of the Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, who was appointed on June 4, 2023, as follows:
"There were 21 school attacks during Yusuf Tekin's ministry period. Following the painful events we experienced in Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş, the commission convened in the Parliament on April 21 and met 27 times. All this time has passed, 7 ministries have signed, but not a single problem has been resolved. Less than 24 hours after the signatures, blood is flowing in front of the school. Those who say 'we took precautions' on paper have their hands in the 1st degree risky area." "He created a law enforcement system that cannot interfere with a person walking 100 meters with a gun."
Stating that the attack cannot be seen as a singular psychological case or just the administrative inadequacy of the Ministry of National Education (MEB), Özbay emphasized that the government bears responsibility with all its organs:
"This incident cannot be talked about only in terms of Yusuf Tekin. This is a serious picture that shows that the government's ministries did not fulfill their duties as a whole. The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not do its duty; it could not protect the school environment. The Ministry of Family and Social Services did not do its duty, it did not follow the children who enrolled in open high school and broke away from school and society. This order, which does not prevent individual armament and pushes children into the vortex of futurelessness and hopelessness, is the real source of violence."
Reminding that Minister Yusuf Tekin sent his own children to private school, Özbay stated that the awareness of public responsibility and the virtue of resignation did not remain in the members of the government.
Özbay also emphasized that the Minister of National Education had thus admitted the situation of public schools. He reminded that it is a public obligation for the minister to provide the same opportunities to the public's children as he provides to his own children.
Özbay also stated that a minister in a developed country of the world cannot remain in his seat after 21 school attacks, and underlined that the government acts as if it owns everything, but when it comes to disasters and crises, it acts as if it is not responsible for anything that happens.
