President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on April 20 that school safety remained the government’s top priority and that there would be no compromise on the issue.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said violence had to be addressed through a broad approach covering family life, digital exposure and coordination between institutions.
“The more accurately we identify the factors fueling the culture of violence, the more successful we will be in the treatment process,” Erdoğan said.
He added that the government would expand its monitoring in digital spaces and make greater use of artificial intelligence.
“We will further strengthen our visible and invisible presence in the dark corners of the internet by also benefiting from artificial intelligence,” he said.
Erdoğan said one of the next steps would be closer cooperation between schools and law enforcement, along with new working models to improve prevention.
He also said communication between schools and parents would be strengthened, including through an improved parent appointment system and support lines aimed at tackling digital addiction.
He also warned against the way violence is portrayed in the media, saying that presenting attackers as strong or admirable figures could distort young people’s sense of reality.
Detailed reporting of violent acts and repeated broadcasting of attack footage, he said, could also raise the risk of imitation among children.
Erdoğan’s remarks came five days after a 14-year-old student opened fire at a middle school in Kahramanmaraş, killing nine people and wounding 13.
It was the second school shooting in two days in Türkiye, an unusually rare shock that prompted a nationwide review of school security.
