
Turkey’s first-ever joint mosque-cemevi complex has been under construction in Ankara since last September. The project, which is being carried out by the CEM Foundation and the Hacı Bektaş Veli Culture, Education, Health and Research Foundation, was first suggested by Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who lives in the US in self-imposed exile.

Speaking to some Nigerian journalists in Istanbul, the President of Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey, (TUSKON) Mr Rizanur Meral said in 2008 total trade volumes between the two countries was $802million but risen to about $1.5billion(N250 billion) in 2012. He said the increase was due to awareness created by his association for the businessmen in the two countries through organizing seminars and business to business meetings.

The film directed by Terry Spencer Hesser who has won Emmy three times informs audience about Gülen who inspired Hizmet Movement — a volunteer-based grassroots movement that works in the field of education around the world and encourages interfaith dialogue.

Yılmaz, who has worked for the company for 20 years, is among a group of high-level THY employees who have been reassigned in recent months, most of whom were graduates from Fatih University, an institution linked to the Hizmet movement, inspired by US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The Turkish relief organization Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anyone There) has also provided assistance. Yusuf Yıldırım, manager of their international aid department, said they are working closely with municipalities in Bosnia and their partner association in Bosnia, Izvor Nade (Spring of Hope), to ensure the aid is distributed directly to the people in need.

The Cameroon delegation had meetings with KYM officials, as a part of a newly founded charitable foundation in Cameroon. They seek benefiting from KYM’s experiences and using them in their charity work. They were pleased with the warm reception and KYM Bursa director Sadullah Hizan’s presentation on the foundation’s work.

Gülen touched in his letter to the forum :The principle of objectivity in the media, which he said is often violated worldwide. “Adopting this principle and reflecting this principle in stories require a strong character, a strong culture, a sense of responsibility and an understanding of putting national interests above anything else.

A prosecutor has filed charges against a director of Samanyolu TV accusing him of “insulting” and “slandering” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and fomenting “grudges and hostility among the public,” demanding up to 11 years and two months in prison.

The Public Relations Officer of the Istanbul branch, Ms. Fatima Demirtas, told THISDAY about Kimse Yok Mu’s collaboration with the Nizamiye hospital in Abuja to provide 1,000 cataract surgeries for indigent Nigerians. The NGO would pay for the cost of each unit of materials used for the surgeries.

Since the corruption and bribery investigation into businessmen and senior government officials, including four then-ministers, went public on Dec. 17 and Dec. 25, 2013, thousands of police officers have been removed from their posts and reassigned to other positions because of alleged links to the Hizmet movement.

The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) has been harassing TV networks that it deems to be anti-government, and Samanyolu TV has become one of its major targets. The fines have mostly come following the Dec. 17, 2013 corruption operation, in which several businessmen close to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the sons of three ministers were detained over corruption charges.

As part of the “International Peace Projects” awards, a total of 1,179 peace projects from 107 countries that aim to find resolutions to conflicts and establish peace following conflicts were evaluated. Each of the top 10 among those projects received a donation of $50,000 from the GYV to help the project developers implement their projects.

The International Turkish Education Association’s (TÜRKÇEDER) Language and Culture Festival, which brought together 95 students from 27 countries under the motto “Hearts United,” was held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa over the weekend.