South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was awarded the Fethullah Gülen Peace and Dialogue Award during the seventh annual Ubuntu Lecture and Dialogue Awards ceremony held in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.The awards were organized by the Turquoise Harmony Institute, a dialogue center inspired by the prominent Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen to promote mutual understanding and exchange between people from different cultures and religions.Archbishop Tutu accepted his award from Hüseyin Hurmalı of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), of which Gülen is the honorary chairman. Holding a speech after he received his award, Tutu said: “Wonderful thing to have a complexion like mine; you don’t realize when I am blushing. Adam could not be fully human on his own. We are programmed to be interdependent. I learn how to walk like a human being by imitating other human beings. We are fundamentally made for complementarity. A person is a person by other persons. To harm other is to harm oneself. ”
Underlining the importance of efforts that Turkish volunteers are expending to improve Ubuntu in South Africa, Tutu ended his speech with the words: “We have resources; it is an abomination if a child of this nation goes to bed hungry. Wake up, South Africa, to realize your potential.”
Tutu is a South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s due to his efforts against the South African apartheid regime. Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984; he also worked as the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 1995, and known not only for his efforts to reinforce peace within South Africa but also as an aspiration for universal peace and struggles against dictatorial regimes around the world.
The Fethullah Gülen Peace and Dialogue Award is bestowed upon outstanding individuals or organizations that are seen to have made noteworthy contributions to dialogue, peace and harmony in the society.
The state, AKP, Religious Affairs Directorate, Alevis and rights
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) claimed it would minimize the space the state occupies in people’s lives and reduce bureaucracy and downsize the public sector when it was first elected to office. During the early years of its rule, it really moved to achieve these targets. But as it increased its control over the entire state apparatus, it has increasingly become yet another typical Turkish ruling party that prioritizes the state.
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The annual dinner celebrates and strengthens civic ties within the Turkish diaspora and with the United States; last night was no different save the sobering theme of the proceedings: Turkish human rights violations.
Call for Papers – International Conference on “Indo-Turkish Dialogue: Historical, Social and Cultural Perspectives”
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Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel receives Fethullah Gulen Peace and Dialogue Award
FORMER president Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel last night assured South Africans that Madiba was getting better. Machel made the assurance after receiving the Fethullah Gulen Peace and Dialogue Award during the sixth annual Ubuntu Lecture and Dialogue Awards ceremony that was held in Sandton, Johannesburg, last night.
INTERPOL and U.S. reject baseless charges against US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen
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Turkish aid organizations deliver clean water to 20 million
NİHAT POLAT, İSTANBUL As Turkey continues to help struggling African countries, many Turkish aid foundations are working to resolve Africa’s long-standing water supply problem by digging wells in countries across the continent. So far more than 20 million people in Africa and elsewhere have gained access to clean water thanks to the humanitarian work of […]
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