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

Test of Turkish society

Over the past 11 years, Turkey has been undergoing an important transformation. While it seems to defend secular and modern-looking Western lifestyles, it is trying to come out of the tangle of Kemalism, which is a regime disregarding democratic values of the West. Even if Kemalism had at first dreamed of establishing a real Western democracy, it was later defiled and turned into a hegemony of the elite.

Minister thankful to Fethullah Gulen for backing the peace process

Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, thankful to Fethullah Gulen for backing the ongoing peace process in Turkey’s Kurdish issue, said, “The peace process is a process in which the entire nation feels the honor of being equal citizens of the same state under the same flag. So I would like to […]

Unity in diversity

Culture and language can help in bridging divisions on the lines of region, religion, language, ethnicity etc. This is what the International Festival of Language and Culture (IFLC) has been doing this since 2003 by showcasing music and dance from across different countries in Turkey annually.

Taiwanese scholar: Hizmet movement wins hearts with education, charity

Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) Hizmet movement (aka Gulen movement), a social movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, differentiates itself from extremist Islamic views by winning hearts with education and charity, a Taiwanese scholar said Monday. Some think that Muslims are belligerent toward those with different religious views, but Gulen believes in influencing people […]

Erdogan’s parallel state in Kosovo functions despite PM Haradinaj

More importantly, is there any role played by President Hashim Thaçi who is known to be very close to the Turkish government? After all, it seems that Turkey’s Erdogan has a parallel state in Kosovo that executes decisions without the the knowledge of the incumbent prime minister and minister of foreign affairs.

Rumi Forum bestows Peace and Dialogue awards 2013

The Rumi Forum, an international organization promoting interfaith dialogue and peace, honored its 2013 RUMI Peace and Dialogue Award recipients on Thursday evening at the National Press Club Ballroom in Washington, D.C. In attendance at the seventh of the Rumi Forum’s annual Peace and Dialogue Awards ceremonies were academics from 15 different countries and representatives of civil society organizations.

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

Turkish minister: Gülen movement is worse than Nazis

Abant Platform Proposes Mother Tongue Education

Turkey to pay huge compensation for post-coup rights violations, main opposition says

UN Body Asks Immediate Release Of Arbitrarily Jailed Police Chief

Religion and war culture discussed in Vienna

Fethullah Gulen Denies Coup Involvement

Turkish school in Romania moves to new building

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News