
Turkey's 'Mathematics Village': Changing education one equation at a time - mbaytas
http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/turkey-s-mathematics-village-changing-education-one-equation-at-a-time-1597523620
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roadbeats
It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth, so should be in your bucket
list if you like to travel. Visit Şirince, stay in Nişanyan Houses and see
Math Village.

Here is a few photos I shot that time;

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/)

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16155210870/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16155210870/)

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16340854491/)

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16156704877/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16156704877/)

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16327089302/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16327089302/)

Note that Şirince is near Ephesus:

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16150595997/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/16150595997/)

P.S Şirince wine is a scam. Mr. Nişanyan explains it in his book Aslanlı Yol.

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Cenk
Wow, really good photos. My family once visited close to there and I remember
everyone telling us the wine is a scam too.

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jfim
What's the issue with the wine? A cursory Google search did not turn up
anything.

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roadbeats
Just saw this. Mr. Nisanyan's book "Aslanli Yol" has a section claiming all
the wine in Sirince is made outside Sirince, but they're just branded as
Sirince wine for marketin purposes.

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gkya
I have wrote a bit about the situation of Turkish education system here, in
the form of three big consecutive comments. Here is a link for anybody
interested:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15373653](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15373653)

[Edit: rereading this series of comments I linked above, I note some mistakes
in there. E.g. the wealth tax was collected from Muslims too, albeit at a
wildly lower rate compared to non-Muslims. Apart from this sort of details
though, it should be fine and rather accurate. Any corrections are welcome!]

Basically the education has lately become an ideological battleground, and the
1980 coup has furnished the controls to the government to play with it at
every level however it wants. This situation combined with an air of anti-
intellectualism has caused the education and academical system to rot.

Hopefully the upcoming vote will bring a change for good. If there will be
anyone ready to listen, I have tonnes of feedback ready to be given, and I
believe, hopefully again, I'm far from alone in that.

~~~
mda
I am from same generation with you but I think your assertions in your long
comment very hand wavy and super simplified. Needless to say I disagree with
many of them.

~~~
gkya
Simplified yes. Wrong, I dont think so. That whole text is more than 15kb of
narrative, and merits a detailed refutal, not a blunt dismissal.

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grangerize
I have spent there 2 weeks in 2013. It was an amazing experience. What I liked
the most was that it was more like a commune. Everybody helped with cleaning,
doing the dishes and cooking. Everybody was eager to learn from each other,
treated each other with great respect and there were no signs of age
discrimination. Today, I am still in touch with people I met at the village.
Some of them are way older and some of them are way younger than I am. I wish
I could go back to see how it is now.

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nyc111
> He was sued that same year by the state for illegal construction and
> illegally creating an educational institution.

I congratulate Prof. Nesin for creating such a place. No one will remember the
stupid bureaucrats who tried to obstruct this unique place but the village
will remain.

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darkhorn
They sued him because he was critisizing Erdoğan.

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buraksarica
Just google “Ali nesin Erdoğan” and you will see the opposite mostly. He
doesn’t admire Erdoğan but he is liberal enough to analyse him fair.

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kolpa
"analyse him fair" is criticism (true for anyone, not just Erdoğan). But as I
hear, Erdoğan doesn't tolerate fair analysis.

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dman
Erdogan cant stand Real Analysis. _Giggle_

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3327
I went to this village and was a student of Ali Nesin. The village is intense
and grad students go there to do full on set theory and group theory. Glad it
is getting recognition.

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robert_foss
I guess this village is only accessible to Mathematicians who weren't harassed
or fired due to alleged ties to the Gulen movement.

Turkey really is treading the fine line of facism.

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candiodari
There was an article in a French newspaper that details the real story about
education changing in Turkey. The education system has moved from being mostly
secular to being extremely orthodox islamic.

Newly brought in last year: jihad (and no, not "the peaceful kind"), and
removal of evolution. New this year, the how righteous of the punishment of
stoning is.

The illustration from that article was that several girls one day came home
crying, panicked and scared from school. What had happened ? They had been
shown a video of the stoning of a woman, and had to endure their teacher
defending this as just for 30 minutes. Apparently this is now the new normal
in Turkey.

Here's some related articles:

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/devout-
generat...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/devout-generation-
education-turkey-changing)

[https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-turkey-education-
new...](https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-turkey-education-news-coup-
analysis-curriculum-history-istanbul/)

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_r26q
I’m sorry but this is not true. The depiction of Turkey by the french media is
just false. This is NOT something normal.

In fact, for me, the Turkish education system works better than the French
education.

And Islam is not part of the education at school in Turkey.

School in Turkey is about actually learning and carring about each other.

(I am a Turkish-French. I live in both coutries.)

~~~
mrighele
What is not normal about the parent said ? That jihad is now part of the
curriculum and evolution is not ? Not a lie, if you don't like french media
you can check turkish sources [1]. Turkish academics agree that it is not a
lie [2].

According to my turkish friends in the past the quality of education was quite
good but has been steadily going down [5] thanks to the ruling party promoting
religious schools for many years [3]. Islam _is_ part of education at school
in Turkey [4].

[1] [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-education-
ministry-...](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-education-ministry-
reveals-new-curriculum-evolution-out-jihad-in-115673)

[2] [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-academics-tell-
mini...](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-academics-tell-ministry-
that-evolution-theory-excluded-from-curriculum-only-in-saudi-arabia-110307)

[3] [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/world/europe/turkeys-
reli...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/world/europe/turkeys-religious-
schools-rise-as-erdogan-exerts-sway.html)

[4] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/turkeys-
ath...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/turkeys-atheists-and-
religious-minorities-join-forces-to-protest-religious-instruction-in-
schools/2015/02/18/6c8d7e58-b791-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html)

[5] [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-education-
problems-...](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-education-problems-
revealed-in-oecd-wide-education-test-pisa-106997)

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nurettin
I grew up with Aziz Nesin's humorous books and later read Ali Nesin's "who is
afraid of maths?". They helped me immensely while searching for meaning in
life. (An adolescent endeavor, as I later noticed)

What a family of geniuses. Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them.

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afsina
> What a family of geniuses. Turkey definitely doesn't deserve them.

What an arrogant opinion.

~~~
nurettin
How is it related to arrogance?

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aytekin
Such a beautiful school in such a beautiful location. I've been to Sirince a
couple of times. It is famous for its wines.

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linkmotif
Woah count me in, I'm there! Soon as I get rich :). I've been looking for this
place.

~~~
haskellandchill
I too look forward to spending some cozy times with maths when I am
comfortable. However my bank account has been near zero for a decade, I must
at a certain point admit I will not achieve this vision and get on with life.
Not there yet!

~~~
linkmotif
Hey you wanna Haskell and chill?

~~~
haskellandchill
Not really anymore haha. It's more a state of mind. I wanna do proofs and
chill these days.

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arisAlexis
this is until Sultan Erdogan closes it down. Probably you also get expelled if
you don't believe in the Quran. Sad but true. Article tries hard to make
Turkey appear like a good place to innovate and it's probably the worst
oppression for academia in this century with a huge amount of professors in
jail since 2016.

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gkya
BS. Why do we chop time up in random 100 year periods? Oh because it helps us
distance ourselves from the original fascism and it's Aryan bastard! But it
doesn't work, it's recent even if you append an I to the XX. Turkey is in a
moment of crisis. Hopefully we're near the end.

Also, this organisation is not a governmental one already. It is a
mathematical rebellion. Ali Nesin is one of the most dissenting intellectuals.

~~~
arisAlexis
your comment is a general rant. you disagree that many academics are in jail
or that erdogan is taking your country backwards to authoritarian state that
obviously hinders innovation?

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IngoBlechschmid
The Mathematics Village is also well-known for hosting workshops and summer
schools on advanced topics (graduate level and above) in mathematics. For
instance, currently there is a summer school on diffeology, categories &
toposes, and non-commutative geometry:
[https://plus.google.com/+UrsSchreiber/posts/Y3JCNohQJ3D](https://plus.google.com/+UrsSchreiber/posts/Y3JCNohQJ3D)

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profalseidol
Very nice website relative to the websites of corporate owned news sites.

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madengr
Reminds me of the Mentats in Dune.

