Ex-President Demirel known for his support of Turkish schools abroad

In this undated file picture, late Turkish President Süleyman Demirel (L) is seen during his visit to a Turkish school in Turkmenistan along with the country's then-leader and former Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller (R).
In this undated file picture, late Turkish President Süleyman Demirel (L) is seen during his visit to a Turkish school in Turkmenistan along with the country's then-leader and former Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller (R).


Date posted: June 18, 2015

MAHMUT KURNAZ / ISTANBUL

Turkey’s ninth president, Süleyman Demirel, who died on Wednesday at the age of 90, was known for his open support of the Turkish schools abroad inspired by the views of the Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

In a speech that was posted on the Herkul.org website in 2014, Gülen wrote that Demirel was generous enough to say “Write whatever you want to say in a letter to leaders of a state where you want to open a school; I will sign it and send it [as the president of Turkey] to the leader of the state.”

While paying an official visit to Bangladesh in 1997, Demirel inaugurated Turkish Hope Schools in the capital, Dhaka, and also helped a teacher from the school, Süleyman Alptekin, who had been injured in an accident, to return to Turkey in his official plane.

Alptekin had lost a leg after being run over by a bus in an accident two weeks before Demirel’s visit to Dhaka. Unable to get the necessary medical treatment in his hospital in Bangladesh, Alptekin was then taken to an army hospital, where he was visited by Demirel, who had been informed of the incident during the inauguration of the school.

Seeing that Alptekin was unable to return to Turkey for financial reasons, Demirel then gave Alptekin the sleeping compartment of the official plane for the return trip to Turkey.

During the Turkish Olympiads of 2013, Alptekin and a group of students from the Turkish Hope Schools in Bangladesh visited Demirel at his residence in Ankara. Demirel said that Alptekin was doing a very important job teaching Turkish to the students there in Bangladesh. “That’s why we have love, sympathy and appreciation toward these people [teachers in the Turkish schools]” he said.

Demirel was also the chief guest at one of the dialogue meetings of the Journalists and Writers Foundation, whose honorary president is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, soon after the 1997 military intervention into politics which led to many religious groups experiencing oppression from military-instructed state institutions. Demirel, who was the president at that time, said that he was the president of all the people of Turkey, without any discrimination. Upon receiving a plaque from Gülen in remembrance of the event, Demirel also noted that the community represents the unity of the people of Turkey.

Source: Today's Zaman , June 17, 2015

Tags: | | |


Related News

The Gülen Movement and Turkish Soft Power*

The Gülen approach to education aptly demonstrates the group’s global strategy—Gülen movement schools are open to both Turkish migrants and citizens of host countries, and they avoid advancing a religious agenda. These schools aim to help Turkish migrants succeed in their host societies without losing sight of their Turkish roots, and at the same time they promote social unity by serving the needs of migrants and local students alike. The success of Gülen movement schools stems both from the success of the students (and the satisfaction of the parents) and from the prestige and goodwill they enjoy among local and political authorities for promoting integration and acting as a social mediator.

Police raid Gülen-inspired Samanyolu schools in Ankara

In yet another government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, more than 60 police officers carried out raids on four different branches of the private Samanyolu schools in Ankara early on Monday.

Scapegoating: Turkish PM again blames Gülen movement for worsening economy

As the Turkish lira plunged even further on Friday, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım claimed the Gülen movement was responsible for the deterioration in the country’s economic outlook. According to Yıldırım, “separatists” and sympathizers of the Gülen movement are working hard to ruin the Turkish economy in the eyes of the world.

Mischief-makers and the Hizmet movement

Mischief-makers continue to work hard. Every objective conscience sees that the Hizmet movement now has to struggle for its rights and to defend itself against some unjust and fallacious accusations, such as that the Hizmet movement has created a parallel state, that it is an illegal organization and that it is even a junta.

Strange alignment of PKK and government against Hizmet

Close relations between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which began with a settlement process over the Kurdish issue, have deepened with a new alliance aimed at destroying the Hizmet movement.

In Erdogan regime western-oriented intellectuals, bureaucrats, liberals, Kurds, civil society activists in mortal danger

Those in prison—educated, Western-oriented intellectuals and bureaucrats, liberals, Kurds, civil society activists, and supporters of exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen—are in mortal danger. When blood flows from the prisons, it will be no accident nor should anyone believe Erdogan’s security forces were simply reacting to a crisis.

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

Erdoğan…a factionist PM?

Der Spiegel: Turkish embassies pursuing Erdoğan critics in 35 countries

Terrorist organization seeks to fill void in Southeast after closure of prep schools

Ambassadors uneasy over Erdoğan’s orders concerning graft probe

The Fountain 100th Issue Essay Contest

The demise of Turkish democracy

Gülen movement’s engagement with political processes

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News