February 21, 2012 - 15:26 AMT
Turkish headmaster suggests creating database of ‘dangerous’ newborns

A Turkish school principal has suggested that all newborns should be genetically scanned and that those who could prove harmful to the country should be “eliminated.”

"Children should be analyzed immediately after birth. If they are to become harmful to this country, to this nation, then they should be eliminated before they can walk," Dumlupınar Elementary School Principal Mustafa Aydın said yesterday, Feb 20 during a meeting organized by the police department in Turkey’s eastern province of Erzurum.

The meeting's topic was violence among children and ways to prevent it.

Aydın proposed collecting blood samples from criminals at police stations and using their genetic codes as templates to compare with those belonging to newborns.

Aydın said children could become only as good as their families. "Most children in my neighborhood are thieves," he said. "I walked in the streets around my home, children are sitting around in condemned buildings ... keeping stray dogs as pets. I asked authorities to demolish those buildings but they did not."

Turkey’s Education Ministry removed Aydın from duty today and launched an investigation into the incident, Hürriyet Daily News reported.