US-based Turkish NGOs launch aid campaign for Syrian refugees
Date posted: February 24, 2014
VIRGINIA
Various Turkish nongovernmental organizations affiliated with Hizmet Movement carried out a project to distribute aid material for the Syrian refugees living in Turkey.
The Mid-Atlantic Federation of Turkic American Associations (MAFTAA) and American Turkish Friendship Association (ATFA) decided to carry out the project during a visit in the refugee camps in eastern Turkey. The associations contacted with officials from Kimse Yok Mu to deliver around 18,000 blankets they collected in three weeks from the volunteers.
Executive director of Northern Virginia Regional Commission Mark Gibb told Cihan news agency that he is very amazed with the large amount of materials which was collected. Gibb also stated that he had chance to know Hizmet Movement, inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, through the aid campaigns.
The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey exceeded 600,000 and more than 400,000 of them are living outside the refugee camps set up mainly in Turkish border cities, the Turkish disaster management agency stated in October 2013.
The Gülen movement, however, erodes the boundaries of elitism. Cohorts of Turkish society, who were previously not able to experience the world, are going beyond shallow short term trips and living in and deeply engaging with the world. They are also willingly bringing the world back to large sections of society, unlike the old elite who jealously limited their experiences to the small socio-economic and cultural circles they moved in.
Fethullah Gülen’s lawyers fear attacks on his life amid calls for return to Turkey
“We’re very concerned about his safety,” said Reid Weingarten, a member of Gülen’s legal team, at a press conference on Friday in Washington DC. Weingartern repeated Gülen’s denials that he was involved in the attempted coup attempt and suggested that the Turkish government’s evidence will fall far short of American legal standards. “For Mr Gülen to be involved, he would have to be acting inconsistent with everything he’s done his entire adult life,” he said.
U.S. schools are indirectly linked to preacher, often well-regarded
Even before the revolt, this network was already in Erdogan’s sights. Critics say Gulen gets payments from supporters doing contract work on the schools or from “donations” made by Turkish instructors brought to the U.S. on special visas to teach at them, charges he has rejected. Several charter chains thought to be related to the Gulen movement have been investigated by local authorities for misusing taxpayer dollars, but the inquiries haven’t resulted in charges of wrong doing.
Powerful but reclusive Turkish cleric (BBC Interviews Fethullah Gulen)
Speaking to the BBC’s Newshour, Fethullah Gulen said: “It is not possible for these judges and prosecutors to receive orders from me.” Fethullah Gulen has been called Turkey’s second most powerful man. He is also a recluse, who lives in self-imposed exile in the US.
Leaked emails reveal Erdoğan’s son-in-law’s team fabricated news against Gülen in US
An email included in Wikileaks’ Monday publication of the leaked emails of Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law and Turkey’s minister of energy, shows that Albayrak fabricated news with pro-government people in the United States in order to defame the Gülen movement in the US media.
The Dutch Turkish community must speak out about the anti-Gülen violence
Labour MP Ahmed Marcouch calls on Turkish-Dutch organisations to speak out about violence and intimidation and to build bridges instead. There’s a silence and it’s hurting my ears. It’s the silence that surrounds the violence against the Gülen supporters. What happened to the organisations normally so quick to ask for protection against intolerance? Where are […]
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