Plans to abolish “prep schools” in Turkey have sparked a huge feud between two of the country’s most powerful forces on the micro-blogging website Twitter.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK party have proposed eliminating the schools, which provide private tuition classes to help high school children prepare for university entrance exams.
This has angered supporters of the Gulen movement, which finances and runs many of the schools. Numerous hashtags about the row have been tweeted millions of times over the past week.
#BBCtrending reports that the row points to deeper tensions between Mr Erdogan and the Gulen movement.
As part of the “International Peace Projects” awards, a total of 1,179 peace projects from 107 countries that aim to find resolutions to conflicts and establish peace following conflicts were evaluated. Each of the top 10 among those projects received a donation of $50,000 from the GYV to help the project developers implement their projects.
Turkish family detained in Qatar as Erdogan steps up crackdown on Gulenists abroad
Qatari police detained five members of a Turkish family who are linked to the faith-based Gülen movement while the family was on their way to South Africa, the yenihamle.com news website reported on Monday.
Turkey’s Internet watchdog blocks access to website broadcasting Gülen’s speeches
Turkey’s state-controlled Internet watchdog, the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB), has blocked access to herkul.org, a website that regularly broadcasts speeches by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Foreign students express bewilderment over gov’t bid to close Turkish schools
Foreign students who are graduates of schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs affiliated with the Hizmet movement all around the world, have expressed bewilderment over the government’s plan to shut down the schools, saying that the Turkish government is making a grave mistake in targeting these schools as they are renowned and praised for their high-quality education by foreigners.
First purification, next habituation
First of all, in terms of historical settings and cultural codes, Turkey has never found the solid ground to have a fully fledged democracy. The political elites have paid lip service to democracy and viewed democracy as an “electoral democracy.” As we see today, once the political elites have come to power they have adhered to authoritarian practices and curbed freedom and rule of law with the aim to serve their own interests.
Turkish Repression Targets Americans
It’s an old story with dictators. If unopposed, they become ever more brazen in their aggression. Case in point: Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On May 16, during a state visit to Washington, Erdoğan’s bodyguards beat up peaceful protesters, many of them American citizens, in front of the Turkish embassy. At least 11 protesters were injured.
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