Abstract

Emrullah Efendi was one of the most important politician in the Ottoman Empire. He was the Minister of Education between 1909 and 1911 and enacted the Elementary Education Act. Therefore, he contributed to the improvement of the Turkish National Education. The conflict between Emrullah Efendi and Tevfik Fikret who was the principal of the Galatasaray High School in the second ministerial term of Emrullah Efendi is discussed in this article. When Emrullah Efendi wanted to change the budget and interior regulation of the Galatasaray High School in 1910, Tevfik Fikret reacted severely and resigned. After his resignation, students started to protest and this case caused some disputes about education and training in the Ottoman Empire unexpectedly. These cases were reflected to the media. The protests of students and their parents increased. On the other hand, the son of the sultan was the student of this high school. Thus, the revolts in the Galatasaray High School reached to the political dimension. Finally, the Grand Vizier met the Council of Ministers, new administrative arrangements were made and the revoltes ended. This issue started the discussions about the problems of the high school education in the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, the Galatasaray High School incident made history, because it was the first revolt which occured in all high schools