Couple offering wedding feast to Syrian refugees surprised by feedback

A Turkish couple who have made their way onto major newspapers around the world for spending their wedding day feeding 4,000 Syrian refugees in the southern province of Kilis on the Syrian border have said they never thought they would receive so much positive feedback for their action.

PM Erdoğan continues with insults, threats against Hizmet movement

Erdoğan put the blame on the “parallel state,” claiming that the whole thing was a plot against the government. Instead of explaining why manager of public bank Halkbank had $4.5 million placed in shoeboxes and why son of former minister of interior, had TL 1.5 million ($0.7 million) in safety boxes in his house when police arrived to take them under custody.

Ramadan Feast: Community Bonding at Its Best from the Turkish Cultural Center

Dignitaries, clergy, and everyday citizens, Jews, Christians and Muslims gathered Thursday night at Tarrytown’s DoubleTree Hotel by the invite of the Turkish Cultural Center for a Ramadan dinner, speeches, and entertainment. State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins praised the far-reaching outreach and inclusivity of this group and the peacefulness of their mission.

Corruption investigation: Questions that will hound PM Erdoğan

Everyone is wondering now what is behind the corruption investigation, and the first “suspect” to come to many minds is the Islamist Gülen movement. Tensions between this group and the AKP have been rising over the years, and boiled over recently due to the prep-school issue – a matter that has received wide media coverage.

The Gülen movement denies this but the vitriol flying between daily Zaman, which is close to Gülen, and Yeni Şafak, which is staunchly pro-AKP, is enough to give one a sense of the bitter struggle involved.

We could not have imagined so many insults

They hope to cover up the corruption investigation and the reassignment of thousands of police officers and dozens of prosecutors and judges that had been planned much earlier. When the prime minister opted to use the language of insult, his copycat ministers and deputies who want to be popular with the prime minister began to use even more violent language.

Turkish minister: Gulenists are more dangerous than ISIL because they’re well-educated

Berat Albayrak, Turkish energy minister and son-in-law of President Tayyip Erdoğan, has said at a conference that people affiliated with the Gülen movement are more dangerous than Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants because they’re well educated and have “higher IQs” than his own.