
Police officers and inspectors from 15 government agencies have raided Gülen-inspired private schools in the western province of Manisa for the third time, as part of a government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement.

Parents İsmail and Seval Topçuoğlu are seeking TL 40,000 in damages from the Education Ministry for violating students’ educational rights by adopting a new regulation about dershanes (prep schools), claiming it aims to bypass a top court’s ruling to annul a controversial law to close down the schools.

The poor condition of state schools in Turkey was exposed by Today’s Zaman reporters on Monday, who found that despite the government expending considerable resources investigating and raiding private educational institutions sympathetic to the Gülen movement, many state schools fail to meet even basic health and safety standards.

Police and inspectors from several government departments have carried out further raids on Gülen-inspired schools, including a kindergarten in Manisa, as part of a government-led operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, influenced by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Police officers and inspectors carried out raids on a number of schools inspired by the faith-based Gülen movement as part of a government-led operation against the movement in southeastern province of Diyarbakır, where people have gone on strike in protest of the government’s recent practices in the province.

“I’m happy to be a journalist despite all the stress and pressure we’ve been under from the government,” Akarcesme said last Tuesday during a visit to the newspaper’s offices by group of Capital Region journalists and academics led by the Turkish Cultural Center of Albany.

Inspectors from the tax, finance, fire, social security, environment and urbanization, food, agriculture and husbandry bureaus were brought to the school with Smuggling and Organized Crime Police while the students were in session. Such raids have occurred repeatedly across the educational institutions’ branches, along with other schools, on an almost daily basis.

Samanyolu Educational Institutions are preparing to file a criminal complaint against three government officials on charges of misconduct related to an unlawful warrant to inspect all private schools in Ankara through the end of the 2015-2016 academic year, Today’s Zaman has learned.

As the witch hunt against government opponents continues to grow, a number of education union representatives have criticized the recent government-backed police raids on private schools and educational institutions that are sympathetic to the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement.

The Kimse Yok Mu charity organization, which has been subjected to a smear campaign by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, has launched its relief campaign ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) with an amusing banner, in an attempt to circumvent imposed restrictions.

In yet another government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, police officers and inspectors from several government bodies carried out raids on private high schools and exam preparation schools across Turkey on Thursday.

The Hizmet Essay Contest is an annual contest series that encourages research on the Hizmet movement as well as the works of the Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen. The contest aims to motivate individuals to think critically about issues that affect the international society and, how to tackle these important issues from a Hizmet perspective.

Niagara Foundation is proud to present its 2015 Media & Ethics Forum: Censorship and Democracy in the Digital Age. During this forum, speakers from academic, government, journalism and nonprofit backgrounds will discuss press freedom and media ethics, the impact of social media on ISIS’s member recruitment, and media suppression in Turkey as a regression model.