Members of prominent Turkic-American institutions pose together during a recognition ceremony on the annual “Turkic Cultural Day” in Trenton, New Jersey.
Date posted: November 20, 2014
New Jersey hosted its Turkic Day at the Trenton War Memorial.
The day was officially recognized five years ago and has been celebrated ever since.
In his opening remarks the head of the Turkic American Council, Furkan Kosar emphasized the importance of building bridges through cultural organizations.
Furkan Kosar, Turkic American Council: “We have been doing this for more than 10 years through interfaith and intercultural dialogue but the last four years we have been doing this as Turkic Day. We are trying to gather elected officials and Turkic Americans at the state house.”
Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat from the New Jersey Senate spoke of the state as a melting pot of cultures.
Senator Diane Allen from the Republican party also commented on the future of inter cultural relations and sending a message of harmony to younger generations.
The event was attended by legislators, senators and elected officials.
It ended with a musical rendition in true Turkic tradition.
Last week I visited Canada to speak at a panel on Turkey in Ottawa and give a lecture on Turkey-EU relations at the Munk School for Global Affairs in Toronto. The panel was part of the first Turkic-Canadian Convention intended to boost economic and cultural relations between Canada and Turkey. The convention was organized by the Anatolian Heritage Federation and was also attended by five members of the Turkish Parliament from the three major parties.
Turkey’s coup attempt & a more intimate view of the Hizmet Movement
Working towards this vision of the world, the Gulen Movement focus primarily in three areas: creating high achieving educational institutions from elementary schools to universities; establishing interfaith dialogue organizations where leaders from different religions as well as public official come together to find and share common grounds at a local and international level; and providing emergency relief in disaster areas around the world.
‘The work of Hizmet followers is really tackling the fundamentals of what is needed in the society’
Hizmet Movement is represented by the people that I’ve met. I see that there is a common purpose of like-minded people, in a very grass-root way, coming together, pushing for some ideals that they believe in, in the society, and I’m touched by the genuine motivation of the people that I’ve met. I am impressed with the sacrifice that individuals that believe in this contribute to this collective goal that they are trying to reach.
The First Private Kurdish TV Channel in Turkey
President Gül, after watching the demo of the Dünya TV, said that “this is it, Turkey should normalize”. He further said, “if only this broadcasting had started 10 years ago, we could have been much more normalized already”.
Terrorists not true Muslims, says scholar
Gülen placed notices in leading US and European newspapers, including in France, to condemn the atrocities of IS against the background of the murders of Alan Henning, James Foley among others by the militants. Gülen had said IS’s actions are a “disgrace to the faith they proclaim and crimes against humanity”.
Are the Turkish Leader Erdogan’s Claims of Terrorist Coup Plotting to Be Believed?
It is hard to find a parallel for what has transpired in Turkey since last month’s failed coup without making comparison with the Nuremburg decrees of 1935 that legally ostracized Germany’s Jews and people of Jewish ancestry. Yet Nazi anti-Semitism had a clear and straight-forward rationale, while the popular furor in Turkey over the Hizmet bears the flavor of a personal grudge match between two one-time friends. No ideology. Just down and dirty, no holds barred.
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