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

Turkey’s Reichstag Fire

When tanks blocked bridges in the heart of Istanbul and F-16s bombed Turkey’s parliament in Ankara on July 15, Western diplomats were caught by surprise. So too were U.S. forces stationed at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. The U.S. intelligence community had not an inkling that anything was amiss until the troops started moving.

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Monday rejected an appeal by the Turkish government to refer to the Grand Chamber its ruling that allows the retrial of 239 people convicted on terrorism charges for alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing Turkish media. Turkey’s appeal challenged the ECtHR’s […]

Right to dissent in Turkey

The primary reason why members of Hizmet (Service), a faith-based social movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, have been attacked, vilified and stigmatized by a government that is dominated by overzealous political Islamists and pro-Iranian sympathizers is that Gülen is standing up to the increasingly authoritarian powers of Erdoğan, who has seized control of the republic’s institutions including the judiciary, leading to increased polarization and tension in Turkish society.

Romanian Minister: Turkish schools are raising the next generation of Romanians

The Clui branch of the Turkish schools in Romania, operating in the country for the past 20 years now, kicked off the academic year in its new campus. The Romanian Minister of Social Dialog Aurelia Cristea inaugurated the school building. The minister hailed the schools as institutions raising the next generation of the country.

Turkish schools very well respected and trusted, Pakistan’s Education minister

Pakistani minister also stressed the importance of education in terms of its role for the country’s future. “Education is one important thing for the country to move forward. In fact my duty is also to make things better in the field of education in Pakistan. We have a lot of good examples from Turkey and the way Turkey has progressed not only in economy and democracy…Turkey serves as a role model of Pakistan.”

Toward a culture of coexistence

Nigeria is an important and relevant place for this conference because it is where volunteers of the Hizmet Movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen’s ideas have established 16 schools, a university and a hospital.

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

Turkey investigating 4,167 Gülen followers in 110 countries

Turkey’s purges continue a year after failed coup

AK Party’s Islamism

Turkish officers speak: Erdogan may have staged coup

[Alleged] “Coup leader” Gülen’s friendships with the Catholic Church

Hizmet Movement NGOs from 80 nations share intercultural experiences at GYV meeting

Fethullah Gülen’s prospects for inter-religious dialogue

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News