National Security Council intended to arrest Fethullah Gülen in 1997

2 September 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, ISTANBUL Meral Akşener, a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy and vice president of Parliament, who was interior minister at the time of the Feb. 28 coup, claimed that The National Security Council (MGK) actually discussed a total of 24 decisions, which included the recitation of the call to prayer […]

Opposition deputy seeks answers on gov’t ban on Kimse Yok Mu

A lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has directed questions at Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on why the government banned charity group Kimse Yok Mu from collecting donations. In a formal parliamentary question, CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu asked Davutoğlu to explain the legal grounds for the government decision dated Sept. 22 to rescind Kimse Yok Mu’s permission to collect charitable donations

Prep school owners write to Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court will review a law that seeks to shut down preparatory schools that assist students in studying for the national high school and university admission exams after organizations representing private prep schools wrote to the court, asking to make statements about the problems that might arise due to the closure of these institutions.

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.

Kimse Yok Mu launches large-scale aid campaign for Syrian refugees

İPEK ÜZÜM, İSTANBUL Turkish aid organizations have launched a joint large-scale aid campaign to provide food and shelter from the cold to Syrian refugees who fled to Turkey to escape from the intensifying violence in their country. Syrian refugees in Turkey, whose number has reached 132,920 according to a written statement recently released by the […]

Gülen movement makes Turkey more noticeable

FATİH VURAL/TUĞBA KAPLAN, İSTANBUL A sociologist who has studied the faith-based Gülen movement of Turkey extensively has said the movement helps other countries in the world to become more aware of Turkey. Helen Rose Ebaugh, the author of “The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam,” was in İstanbul […]