Cabinet bans charity Kimse Yok Mu from collecting donations

A Palestinian kid carries an aid package delivered by Kimse Yok Mu? charity organization in Gaza. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Mehmet Ali Poyraz)
A Palestinian kid carries an aid package delivered by Kimse Yok Mu? charity organization in Gaza. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Mehmet Ali Poyraz)


Date posted: October 6, 2014

Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu’s (Is Anybody There) right to collect charity donations has been withheld because of a recent Cabinet decision.

On Monday, the Taraf daily ran a story arguing that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government planned to remove Kimse Yok Mu’s public interest status, which would prevent it from collecting donations. The report argued that the proposal was pending with the Cabinet, expecting it to take effect before the Eid al-Adha holiday, which will start on Saturday.

However, this decision came even before the Eid al-Adha holiday. İsmail Cingöz, the president of Kimse Yok Mu, announced the Cabinet decision via his official Twitter account on Thursday. With the decision, Kimse Yok Mu will no longer be able to collect financial donations from the public.

Kimse Yok Mu gave an official statement on Monday harshly criticizing the decision, as there are no legal grounds for it. “We do not want to believe that the government would be part of such a plot against our organization,” the group said in its statement.

Prior to this statement, Kimse Yok Mu held a press conference on Monday morning. Kimse Yok Mu Secretary-General Savaş Metin said the government’s new aim is to remove the status of “public interest” from the association, which allows it to collect money without receiving permission government — it is a politically motivated move. The organization is a humanitarian NGO and strictly apolitical.

Kimse Yok Mu is the only aid organization in Turkey that holds UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) special consultative status, and it developed internationally recognized relief programs in partnership with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in 2013. It was also granted the Turkish Grand National Assembly Outstanding Service Award in 2013, under the AK Party rule.

However, a smear campaign against the organization has been launched since Dec. 17, with the breaking of a corruption investigation into leading AK Party figures. Due to a government grudge against the grassroots Hizmet movement — it holds the movement responsible for the corruption investigation — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was previously prime minister and AK Party chairman, has targeted Kimse Yok Mu, which is influenced by the Hizmet movement.

Source: Today's Zaman , October 2, 2014

Tags: | | |


Related News

2014: a difficult year?

Turkey’s political life has entered a zone of turbulence. Some people were already accusing the governing team of being time worn, which is only normal after 11 consecutive years in power.

Turkish Deputy PM says he will not visit Gülen amid ‘prep school tension’

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has said that he will not visit Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen during his trip to the United States, amid tension between the Gülen movement and the government over the possible closure of private “dershane” examination prep schools. After a Cabinet meeting on Nov. 18, Arınç had said the government would reevaluate its work on the controversial closure of the prep schools “together with the related parties.”

Kanter: You need to know what is going on in Turkey

Question: You are being called a terrorist by Turkish government. What is your opinion on the widespread use of this term by the Government? Kanter: This is a term that many governments are using to scare people and get public support. No one likes terrorists — so if you brand your opponents as terrorists it’s easy to get support. The Turkish government has even accuses the US of being terrorist sponsors, they are a joke now.

Erdogan: A saint elsewhere, outside Turkey’s shores?

On a recent trip to Spain, I picked a copy of the International New York Times, and saw a story that shocked me greatly. It said Mr Erdogan had ordered the release of 38,000 prisoners serving various jail terms, for different offences, in order to make space for the so-called coup plotters who had no space in Turkey’s overflowing prison. I was totally shocked by the news because I can’t imagine a situation where convicted criminals are being set free just so political opponents can be locked up.

Global Dignity Day marked in Turkey

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) organized a number of activities in Turkey to mark the Annual Global Dignity Day, which is celebrated with Global Dignity-led events around the world with the participation of 350.000 young people across 50 countries.

100,000 blankets campaign by Turkish-American groups in US media

“Officials in Loudoun and Fairfax counties organized the first blanket drive last year after several local politicians, including Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York and former Purcellville mayor Robert W. Lazaro, visited a refugee camp in Turkey and said that they were profoundly affected by what they saw: Thousands of Syrian refugees, many of them children, all crowded together in a sea of small tents,” The Washington Post wrote.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

The Hizmet movement and participatory democracy

New Constitution expected to eradicate remnants of Feb. 28 coup

Erdoğan is helping Hizmet community in three ways

Heartbreaking stories of Turkish Refugees in Greece

Actually, the president is electing his republic

The story of the government media’s smear campaign against Hizmet

President Fox speaks about Fethullah Gulen and Gulen Movement

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News