Turks, Rio de Janeiro gov’t sign agreement to further education efforts in Brazil


Date posted: November 13, 2015

YAVUZ UĞURTAŞ / RIO DE JANEIRO

The Brazilian-Turkish Cultural Center (CCBT) and the Rio de Janeiro state government signed an education cooperation agreement on Tuesday paving the way for the establishment of a long-anticipated “Brazil-Turkey Intercultural High School” by Turkish entrepreneurs sympathetic to the faith-based Gülen movement in Duque de Caxias, a city in southeast Brazil.

Brazilian Education Minister Antonio Neto said the deal was signed between “the people of the two countries” and expressed his gratitude to the Turkish entrepreneurs for their efforts to improve relations between the two nations.

“Thanks to this agreement and the planned intercultural high school, information pollution regarding the Middle East and Turkey will be cleared and our people will get to know more about Turkish people and culture,” Neto told Brazilian and Turkish press members after the signing ceremony on Tuesday.

The Brazil-Turkey Intercultural High School that will be established within the scope of the agreement will operate as a charter school and be run by people of Turkish descent. The school is planned to go into action at the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year, which kicks off in February of next year.

Volunteers affiliated with the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement — an initiative inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen that started out a quarter-century ago in the autonomous Azerbaijani region of Nakhchivan to support education for children abroad — now operate in 160 countries, with the founders of the movement and its volunteers welcomed with open arms around the world.

However, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently declared a war against the Gülen movement since a major corruption investigation that implicated him and many people in his government became public in December of 2013 and has pressed for the closure of Turkish schools in countries he visits. Most recently, Erdoğan campaigned for the closure of these schools in Albania, a request respectfully dismissed by top Albanian leaders.

Source: Today's Zaman , November 11, 2015


Related News

AK Party gov’t behind anti-Hizmet declaration, leaked recordings allege

A joint declaration by a number of civil society organizations to proclaim open support for the government during debates over the closure of dershanes (prep schools) was concocted by the advisors of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and some associations were forced to lend their support, according to a number of new leaked recordings.

Book Review: A Hizmet Approach to Rooting out Violent Extremism

The violent extremist ideology cannot be rooted out until an effective, coherent, comprehensive and well-reasoned counter-narrative is evolved. For that, all the theological, religious, political, historical, instrumental and socio-psychological underpinnings of the global jihadism have to be counter-argued and dismantled.

A solid step in Gulen movement Alevite community dialogue: Mosque-cemevi-soup kitchen project

The Gulen movement and Cem Foundation of the Alevite community have agreed to launch an important project. They will build a mosque, a cemevi (Alevite house of gathering) and a soup kitchen side by side in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. Gulen (Hizmet) movement takes a concrete step forward to extend common shared values with Alevite […]

Fethullah Gülen and the role of nonviolence in a time of terror

Fethullah Gülen is unusual in adding a distinctly Islamic voice to the calls for a non-violent approach to conflict resolution. But how well do Gülen’s teachings on non-violence lead to peaceful transformation on the ground? Is his a static and passive approach bounded by dogma, or are we witnessing an innovative, active and self-aware spirit of transformation which really can lead to a new way of defining Islam in action?

GYV head dismisses ‘parallel state’ allegations against Hizmet

Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) Head Mustafa Yeşil said use of ‘parallel state’ argument against the faith-based Hizmet Movement led by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is reminiscent of Feb. 28 coup period’s practices, and represents a coupist and discriminatory approach towards certain social groups.

Foreword to “The Gulen Movement: Civic Service without Borders”

I have long been an admirer of Fethullah Gulen not only because he speaks of and promotes a compassionate version of Islam, but also because the movement he has inspired enables that vision by establishing educational institutions that practise and embody what they teach.

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

PM threatens business, media and civic groups amid corruption woes

11th Int’l Turkish Olympiads kick off in İstanbul

Loyal depositors shoulder Turkey’s Bank Asya while political war rages

UN representative found evidence of torture in Turkish prisons

Saudi scholar finds what he has been looking for in Gulen

The Famous Soccer Player Hiding in Plain Sight in a California Bakery

Dialogue Eurasia Institute Opens in Kazakhstan

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News