The two-day International Conference on “Indo-Turkish Dialogue: Historical, Social and Cultural Perspectives” is jointly organized by the Centre for Study of Foreign Languages, University of Hyderabad, India, Mevlana University, Turkey and Indialogue Foundation, India in October, 2014 in University of Hyderabad, India.
Jurists and politicians reacted harshly to a claim in an email by an anonymous whistleblower from the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB), the agency responsible for carrying out legal wiretaps, that there is a conspiracy to bring the Hizmet movement under suspicion of infiltrating TİB.
The Hizmet movement is according to Ebaugh (2010) a civic movement rooted in Islam that is independent from the state. Others see it simply as a faith- based movement (Esposito and Yilmaz 2010). Agai (2004) describes it as an education network and Hendrick (2009) as a global pressure group to promote Turkish interests.
Despite the fact that Turkey has recently adopted legislation against hate crimes, Turkey’s divisive Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has not stopped his attacks with verbal expressions of intolerance and hatred directed at the judiciary, opposition parties, the media, business groups and members of the Hizmet movement, a faith-based civic movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
A website established and run by a group of Turkish volunteers based on the West Coast of the United States which aims to provide the most accurate and up-to-date source of information and news about the Hizmet movement has been attracting increasing attention globally.
Kimse Yok Mu volunteers visited 106 children living in an orphanage in the city of Dar es Salam and brought presents with them like bunk beds, blankets, clothing, food, stationery, and toys. In response to this charitable gesture, the orphanage directress prayed, “We are thankful to the Turkish people who have sent their aid all the way here from Turkey. May our Lord bless you with happiness in the Hereafter for all your help.
Kimse Yok Mu Foundation continues to extend a helping hand to Nepal. With the support of Nepal’s Ministry of Health, KYM is getting ready to treat 2,400 Nepalis who are suffering from cataracts. The patients are of limited means and the surgeries performed will be free of charge.
Dozens of members of the United States Congress, as well as US administration officials and other leading public figures, attended the fourth annual convention organized by the Turkish American Alliance (TAA), the biggest umbrella organization of Turkic Americans, reiterating the solid ties between the people of the US and 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.
Certain groups devised an imaginary and ambiguous crime against the Hizmet movement based on claims of a so-called “parallel state.” However, this is such a vague crime that if those who blame the Hizmet movement for establishing a “parallel state” are accused of the same thing, these charges will seem well-founded, because of ambiguity of the claims.