June 3, 2013

11th Turkish Olympiad opens with grand ceremony in Ankara

A grand inauguration ceremony was held at 19 Mayıs Stadium in Ankara on Saturday night for the 11th International Turkish Language Olympiad, a festival that celebrates the Turkish language and this year brought together 2,000 students from 140 countries around the world.

Is the Gülen Movement Apolitical?

Graham E. Fuller

The Gülen movement eschews politics in the belief that it leads to social divisiveness and distraction from the essential issues of values and principle. In fact, the movement opposes the creation of political parties founded on religion in general, believing that they end up compromising or contaminating religion and that they only serve to create social strife damaging to the position of religion in society. The movement is comfortable with living within the secular strictures of modern Turkish society—as long as “secularism” is not taken to mean state license to persecute the community’s members or enact legislation hostile to religion.