As the Education Council gathered in early December this year, media already lent an ear to the council's recommendations that might be turned into provocative news. The council basically consists of representatives of teachers' unions and those unions bring forward the recommendations. Additionally, some authorities from the National Education Ministry, educational experts and student representatives also take part in the council, but the council's recommendations are actually issued by the teachers' unions.This year, there were three council recommendations that were brought to the agenda especially by the secular media outlets that "proved the direction the Justice and Development Party [AK Party] is dragging the country," according to them. One of them was starting religious education from first grade in primary schools, but the discussion on it did not last long since the National Education Minister Nabi Avcı explicitly said that such a step was beside the point. Moreover, the council can only make recommendation decisions, and the government has total freedom to follow the recommendations. Consequently, council recommendations are the expression of the demands of conservative social segments through teachers. These recommendations constitute reference points for the government and they are rarely implemented as proposed.The second controversial recommendation was abolishing alcoholic drink serving courses at tourism vocational schools. It is hard to determine how vital this is for a young tourism student. But it is easy to see why such a thing was recommended. Although the curriculum of this course comprises "neutral" subjects such as which drink should be served in which glass, things change when it comes to cocktails. Bottles must be opened for cocktails and, as everyone knows, once a bottle is opened, the drink is at least tasted. Consequently, conservative families who wish their children to become tourism administrators do not want them to be introduced to alcohol before they turn 18. This recommendation may evolve into an elective course alternative and thus the ministry might indirectly approve the council's recommendation.However, even the alcohol matter, which is normally a popular topic, did not remain so long on the agenda and did not make it among the main topics discussed on TV shows. The real debates gathered around the Ottoman language issue. The council recommended the education of Ottoman language as a compulsory course. As the ministry did not approve of this, the current implementation was introduced - Ottoman would be compulsory at religious imam-hatip high schools and an elective at other schools. This is a very rational solution. Actually, it might be more "normal" if it were to be an elective at all schools, but secular people already have no relation with the education at imam-hatip schools. Well, to whom do we owe the hot debates on Ottoman in this case? To Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of course. He said "Ottoman will be taught and learned in this country whether or not they object to it." But this is already the case. It has been taught and learned for years. The problem was that the secular media interpreted Erdoğan with its "psychological ears" again. Almost all the reviewers interpreted Erdoğan's remarks as if he said everyone had to learn Ottoman, and they suddenly adopted their human rights activist roles again. And as expected, Erdoğan did not bother himself to correct this distortion; instead he advanced toward the debates.Therefore, the debates reached the point the president wished for it, which is a point that displayed how the Kemalist regime's reforms ravaged the collective memory and created alienation. For conservatives, Ottoman is one of the foundations of their identities they are trying to revive today and a way to have access to pre-Republican literary and political texts. Arguing against the education of a language does not go beyond a superficial orientalism. As in all the debates, the result enabled the AK Party base to objectively see secularists one more time and closed the ranks on the government as the election approaches.