
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.

The two-day forum produced two important agreements. On the first day, TUSKON signed a commercial partnership deal with the Ethiopia Chamber of Commerce and on the second day, the confederation signed a bilateral commercial agreement that promises to provide advantages to TUSKON members in trade not only with Ethiopia, but also with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which has 22 member countries.

Women, tasked studies on poverty, woman, child, education, environment and health mostly within the body of the UN came together for a program held by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV). With the event titled “Women’s Perspectives on UN Post-2015 Development Agenda” various sessions on nongovernmental organizations and developments targets, environment and economy will be held.

Kimse Yok Mu which operates in many parts of the world with humanitarian aid projects launched a project in 2012 for 1, 3 million people in some cities of Pakistan. Large numbers of philanthropists from Turkey participated in the campaign and 455 water wells were dug in the country in two years.

Top executives from the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), one of the country’s leading business confederations, are in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to hold talks on mutual trade and investment relations with senior officials such as the Ethiopian prime minister and the ambassador to Ankara.

Doctors who decided to volunteer at the Nile Hospital, established by Turkish charity organization Kimse Yok Mu and set to open in Uganda in few days, have left Turkey on their way to their new posts. The Nile Hospital will be opened very soon, Türkoğlu said, adding that the second doctor to commit to serving Ugandan patients was Sami Kiper.

Presenting the Gülen movement as the architect of the court ruling may help the government deal with a possible backlash from families, the İHH — an outspoken supporter of the government’s Middle East policies — and a wider segment of its own voters who want Israeli officials to pay for the Mavi Marmara raid, in case a reconciliation deal with Israel goes into effect. Internationally, it may help the government deal with Israeli and Western criticism that it is not committed to reconciliation with Israel despite officially vowing that it is.

Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland received a group of teachers from Turkish schools and businesspeople, affiliated with the Hizmet Movement, at her palace. “Success of the schools you established pleased me a lot. If you open such schools in our country, my people will benefit from them,” said Ntombi adding that she promise to support schools which will be opened in her country.