Le Monde: Ankara offered Senegalese government $7.5 million to transfer Yavuz Selim educational group to Maarif


Date posted: December 12, 2017

Parents of Senegalese children attending schools run by followers of U.S.-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen – the man blamed for last year’s coup attempt in Turkey – are worried by reports these schools could be handed over to Turkish government control, news website Quartz said.

“I don’t even know who Gülen or (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan are,” mother Oury Mbaye told the website following reports her child’s school could be handed over to the Turkish government-controlled Maarif Foundation.

“If they are imposing managers on me that have no experience in education, I will transfer my children to a French school. I did not choose Maarif, and they won’t impose anything on me.”

Erdoğan’s Islamist government used to see the Gülen religious movement’s overseas educational activities as a way to project Turkish soft power. But the group fell out dramatically with the government in 2013, when prosecutors said to be linked to the movement began investigating ministers on corruption charges.

The Turkish government now considers the group a terrorist organisation and accuses it of masterminding the failed 2016 coup attempt.

Le Monde newspaper said Ankara had offered the Senegalese government $7.5 million to transfer the Yavuz Selim educational group to Maarif.

But Education Minister Serigne Mbaye Thiam denied the report, saying that Senegal had only licensed Maarif to be able to set up its own schools, Quartz said.

Source: Ahvalnews , December 11, 2017

Tags: | | | | |


Related News

The system is the root cause of corruption

We have the perfect recipe for all kinds of corruption. The media has been silenced. It does not work as a watchdog, inspecting the government’s financial dealings. Parliament cannot inspect the government’s financial transactions. The Court of Accounts (Sayıştay) cannot inspect the government’s expenses. There are no internal mechanisms within the ruling party to make sure its leaders are accountable; there is only an infallible leader figure, and whatever he does, the party endorses it.

Ex-employee files complaint against TİB head over purge

An email claimed that the agency tampered with its system logs to fabricate evidence that the “parallel state,” a term the government uses to describe the Hizmet movement, had listened in on around 2,000 people. The message said the electronic serial numbers (ESNs) of these people were entered into the system as per instructions from TİB President Çelik and then erased — all to make it look like the Hizmet movement had spied on Turkish citizens and then covered its tracks.

London-Based Turkish Academic To Run 10,000 Meters To Raise Fund For Purge Victims In Turkey

İsmail Sezgin, a London-based Turkish academic has tweeted on Tuesday that he will run a total of 10,000 meters in support of the families hit by an ongoing purge by the Turkish government. Releasing a statement on moneygiving.com, Sezgin said that he aims at raising a fund of 10 thousand pounds to help purge-victim families in Turkey.

Teachers, parents oppose Pak-Turk Schools takeover

A group calling itself the Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges Parent-Teacher Association expressed concern on Saturday over reports that the government was going to hand over the school management to “a political entity”. Speaking at a press conference at the Raiwind Road campus, they said they would oppose such a move.

Erdogan goes after Morocco’s Gulenists

Morocco has joined the list of countries where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pursuing the followers and sympathizers of the Hizmet (Service) movement. Like many countries, Morocco has succumbed to Ankara’s pressure and arrested individuals affiliated with the movement.

Gülen has strongly rejected comparison to Iran’s Khomeini time and again

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ’s recently rehashed allegations that Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen planned to return from the US to Turkey in a way similar to Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini are decades-old discredited claims that have been refuted time and again by Gülen himself in his published statements.

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

Galaxy International School in Uganda educates thinkers, innovators

Turkey urges KRG to consider Gulen Movement a “Terrorist Organization”

Judge says judiciary still under tutelage, implies gov’t responsible

Award-winning US screenwriter: Without freedom of speech and media, we’re all slaves

Exiled Turkish Leader Gulen Slams Erdogan for Coup Attempt in Report

Turkey’s AKP planning to blame Hizmet movement for Deep State’s crimes

TUSKON says 2 businessmen threatened members with ‘blacklisting’

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News