Turkey expanding grades for in-person education

Students in several Turkish grades will soon join two other levels in taking in-person lessons, the nation’s president said on Monday.

“We are starting face-to-face education in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 12th grades” in line with determined rules to ensure the students’ safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after a Cabinet meeting at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara.

Preschool and first-grade students had started in-person education on Sept. 21 while other students continued remote education.

Starting next week, Turkey will give free tablet computers to half a million students, Erdogan added.

Amid the pandemic, “nearly 847,000 people were supported with around 4 billion Turkish liras [$515.2 million] as unemployment compensation,” he also said.

The amount of grants paid to employees and low-income groups reached 38 billion Turkish liras (nearly $4.8 billion), the president stressed.

The country on Monday reported 1,603 more patients with the novel coronavirus and 1,320 recoveries over the past 24 hours, the Turkish Health Ministry said.

The overall patient count now stands at 326,046, with recoveries totaling 286,370, according to ministry data.

The death toll from COVID-19 reached 8,498, with 57 more fatalities.

‘Every honorable state should support Azerbaijan’

Reiterating Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan against recent aggression by neighboring Armenian, Erdogan said, “It is the duty of every honorable state to support Azerbaijan’s fight to liberate its occupied territories.” 

The Minsk Group, which was formed by the US, France, and Russia within the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE), caused a deadlock in the Upper Karabakh dispute between the two countries, he stressed. 

Humanity cannot find permanent peace and tranquility without rescuing the world from rogue states and their rogue rulers, he said. 

He added that rogue states such as Israel, Southern Greek Cyprus, and the Assad regime persecute their own citizens and destabilize the world.

Upper Karabakh conflict

Fighting in the region began on Sept. 27, when the Armenian forces targeted civilian Azerbaijani settlements and military positions, leading to casualties.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

Multiple UN resolutions, as well as many international organizations, demand the withdrawal of the invading forces.

The OSCE Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed upon in 1994.

Many world powers, including Russia, France, and the US, have urged an immediate cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense.