A spectacular closing ceremony for Turkish Language Olympiads took place at İstanbul Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadium.
Date posted: June 19, 2013
A spectacular closing ceremony at İstanbul Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadium in front of 200,000 spectators for the 11th Turkish Language Olympiads has left bittersweet memories, signaling the end of a two-week festival full of poetry, dance, Turkish culture and music.
Participants, who came from 130 countries, in this year’s competition wrapped up the two-week long finals that were held across Turkey in İstanbul, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also in attendance, praising organizers and congratulating students.
In address to the audience, Erdoğan slammed violent protesters amid approval roar of thousands of spectators. He said the ‘real Turkey’ representing the most parts of Turkey gathered at the stadium.
Praising the organizers of the event and thousands of Turkish teachers who contributed to spread of use of Turkish as a global language abroad, Erdoğan said the struggle is for reaching world peace.
He also hailed Fethullah Gülen movement, a faith-based social movement that focuses on education, inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue, for its contribution to world peace.
The Gulen Movement has become Turkey’s most significant export
The Gulen movement has become a global movement. In other words, it is Turkey’s most important export. When you cross boundaries, you have to watch the balance. His statement on the flotilla incident was both domestic and international. However, we must not forget that Gulen does not recommend that people fight those in authority. His statements disturbed both the government and the conservatives in Turkey.
What does Turkey deserve?
Once the remaining human capital exits Turkey, the country will be left to bigoted seculars and even more bigoted political Islamists. Given the shameful silence and support for the worst witch-hunt the country has ever witnessed, maybe this is what Turkey deserves: swaying between secular authoritarianism and popular Islamist dictatorship.
Turkish PM asks citizens for help in witch-hunt against Gülen sympathizers
Describing Gülen movement people as “microbes,” the prime minister told citizens to “cleanse the microbes” from society as they serve the country and the nation no good. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called Gülen sympathizers “viruses” long before Turkey’s massive purge accelerated in the post-July 15 era.
‘Hizmet is the attempt to celebrate all of humanity’
Hizmet Movement is unique because it doesn’t try to carry out what we call cultural and religious particularism. That would be the idea that your group is the best, that you have the only form of truth, that all other groups are impure, incorrect and that they are not worthy of time, or that they’re not worthy of learning something from them. Hizmet, in fact, says the opposite. Members reach out to learn from other peoples, they actively invite people from different cultural backgrounds, people from different religious backgrounds to come and teach them, to teach them things.
Flynn’s Turkish [and Erdogan] Connection
The curious thing about the Flynn-Turkey connection is that it was a very badly-kept secret. Details of Flynn’s connection to a firm that worked on behalf of the Turkish government were known at least by mid-November, and there were hints that something fishy was going before that when he began singing Erdogan’s praises and demanding Gulen’s extradition.
Friends of Hrant slam gov’t attempt to associate Dink murder with Gülen movement
A group called Friends of Hrant Dink, including lawmakers and activists, has harshly criticized the government’s recent attempt to associate the Dink’s murder with the Gülen movement, inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, calling on authorities to expose the real criminals behind the murder.
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