April 19, 2014

Islamic scholar Gülen offers condolences to ferry victims

Prominent Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who also inspired the faith-based Hizmet movement, issued a message of condolence to the families of victims who were killed when a ferry sank off in South Korea, leaving more than 300 missing or dead.

Erdoğan's game plan for Hizmet

İhsan Yılmaz

Last week, I was in Australia to participate in the launch of our recently published book “The Muslim World and Politics in Transition: Creative Contributions of the Gülen Movement,” that I edited with Greg Barton and Paul Weller. I also presented papers at a number of conferences, gave opening speeches at two meetings and gave seminars to the Australian-Turkish diaspora communities in Sydney, Australia. As far as Turkey's democracy is concerned, the picture is gloomy from the perspective of the people that I spoke to. We, who live in Turkey, because we are addicted to or accustomed to the crises, perhaps do not recognize the seriousness of the situation. People abroad are very concerned about what is going on in Turkey and they emphasize that since authoritarianism is evolving very gradually, similar to the 1930s in Italy and Germany, people in Turkey may not realize where the process is headed.

Students from West Africa gather at Turkish school in Senegal

Students from west African countries gathered in Senegal's capital city of Dakar to join Math Olympiads which were organized by Turkish "Yavuz Selim Educational Institutions".

Is the AK Party turning into the old CHP?

Abdülhamit Bilici

One of the usual tactics of old politicians is to blame external enemies for anything that goes wrong in the country. It was not really hard to convince people that this was the case given that our people were ready to buy the argument that we are surrounded by enemies and that the Turks have no friends other than the Turks.

Erdoğan hampers girls' education

Abdullah Bozkurt

Adalet Binici, a 14-year-old Kurdish girl in eighth grade, became the champion in last year's Level Determination Examination (SBS), a high school placement test administered by the Turkish government to over a million students nationwide, thanks to the supplementary education and training provided by a prep school run by the Hizmet movement that is inspired by education-savvy Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Coming from a poor family of seven, she did not even have her own room to study in, so she spent most of her after-school time at the prep school studying and preparing for this very competitive exam.

Municipality illegally demolishes building in İstanbul

Workers from the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality have demolished a small, prefabricated shelter on land that belongs to the Hizmet-affiliated Mehtap Education Foundation, despite the lack of official permission to carry out the demolition.