Tension has risen not only in Parliament but also in public squares. Deputies will apparently have to work for at least another full week.
Parliamentary commissions have recently worked weekends too. Yesterday [on Saturday], deputies discussed two bills, one on shutting down the prep schools [dershanes] and the other on [expanding the powers of ] the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). Both bills are controversial. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) plans to shut down the prep schools instead of finding a solution for the problem [the need to improve public schools]. Prep schools do not appear to be the real issue here. The education bill is just a message to a specific audience. It turned out to be the first step in the destruction of the Hizmet movement [inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen]. The new bill [on dershanes] is not limited to prep schools. It aims to almost “reestablish” the Ministry of Education [by reassigning thousands of officials].
Since conflicting with the secularist segments of society in the Gezi Park events, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has taken on a paranoid mentality that tends to relate all developments that are against the AKP government with some form of conspiracy against it. As a result of this paranoid outlook, the AKP government has now gotten itself into a conflict with the Gülen movement. It is arguing that the Gülen movement is working in conjunction with foreign forces to harm the government.
CCBT Teaches Turkish in Public School in Rio de Janeiro
The Turkish-Brazilian Cultural Center (CCBT) has been teaching Turkish classes at the State School Infante Don Henrique in the Copacabana neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro, since July 2013. This course has been attracting attention of educators, tourism professionals, journalists and governors from other Brazilian States.
Turkish PM Erdoğan launches another war [in Turkey]
Turkey’s Islamic camp is more diverse than one would think. In fact, the traditions that Erdoğan and Gülen come from have almost always been distinct and different from each. The former has been more explicitly Islamist, at times anti-Western and anti-Semitic. The latter, the line of Gülen, which goes back to scholar Said Nursi (1878-1960), has rather stayed closer to center-right parties and have been more friendly to the West and also other “Abrahamic” faiths.
British Foreign Secretary praises Turkish schools in Afghanistan
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül: “As you know, during the Taliban regime, girls were not allowed to attend school. Turkey has opened schools to educate these lost girls. I visited the opening of this school in Kabul, and 1,500 students will receive an education at that school,” Gül said to Beckett, referring to a February visit to the Afghan Girls High School.
Middle East’s Struggle for Democracy: Going Beyond Headlines
Last month, when Hizmet representatives criticized the government-proposed legislation that calls for banning exam prep schools, Turkish and Western journalists labeled this opposition as a feud between Prime Minister Erdogan and Mr. Gulen because roughly 15-25 percent of these prep schools were founded by Hizmet participants according to various estimates. But that is an oversimplification.
86-year-old Gülen-linked philanthropist arrested on terror (!) charges
Eighty-six-year-old businessman Celal Afşar was arrested on Thursday along with his daughter, son-in-law and two others in Niğde province as part of an investigation into the faith-based Gülen movement, the tr724 news website reported.
Latest News
Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice
Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say
Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?
Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case
A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook
Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?
Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis
University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links
In Case You Missed It
64-year-old bedridden woman in 17th month of her imprisonment on “terror” charges
Secretary Tillerson: Evidence against Gulen provided by Turkey inadequate, while voluminous
Gülen says abusive language to cover up sins is hypocrisy
8-year-old cancer patient departs to Germany for treatment without parents due to ongoing travel ban
The 14th Annual International Language and Culture Festival, organized by Raindrop Foundation
Reuters interview Gulen, he says he would not flee U.S. to avoid extradition to Turkey
