Turkish Deputy PM Ali Babacan visits Turkish, Japanese schools in Sendai
Date posted: December 10, 2012
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, during a visit to Japan, on Wednesday visited a Turkish and a Japanese school in Sendai, both of which sustained severe damage in last March’s earthquake and tsunami, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Babacan received a warm welcome by the Japanese students of the Matsugahama elementary school in the town of Shichigahama and of the Turkish Abroad International School. “It is our duty to help Japan, which has always offered a helping hand to Turkey whenever we needed one,” said Babacan, adding that Turkey had received great support from the Japanese government and people after devastating earthquakes struck the eastern province of Van in October and November of this year.
Kimse Yok Mu conducts 500 cataract surgeries in Pakistan
Humanitarian aid organization Kimse Yok Mu? (Is Anybody There?) carried out 500 cataract surgeries in Pakistan, as part of its international campaigns to reach out economically disadvantaged people. Volunteers from the organization arrived in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in July for its campaign to perform cataract surgeries for 5,000 people in the country. So far, around 500 people have undergone surgeries, which bolstered ties between Turkey and Pakistan.
Erdogan targets Hizmet inspired schools on Africa visit
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‘Hizmet is the attempt to celebrate all of humanity’
Hizmet Movement is unique because it doesn’t try to carry out what we call cultural and religious particularism. That would be the idea that your group is the best, that you have the only form of truth, that all other groups are impure, incorrect and that they are not worthy of time, or that they’re not worthy of learning something from them. Hizmet, in fact, says the opposite. Members reach out to learn from other peoples, they actively invite people from different cultural backgrounds, people from different religious backgrounds to come and teach them, to teach them things.
Planned prep school ban [in Turkey] disregards basic rights as in single-party era
The government’s intentions to shut down private examination preparation centers [in Turkey] in spite of a strong backlash from educators, economists, students, parents and even terrorism experts brings back memories of the authoritarianism of the early years of the republic, when a single-party regime was in place.
Kalashnikov-carrying police raid Gülen-inspired private and prep schools based on ‘reasonable suspicion’
Police carrying Kalashnikov rifles and inspectors from a number of government bodies raided 14 private and prep schools in Mardin province on Tuesday based on “reasonable suspicion” that the schools are involved in tax fraud, a move that comes as part of the government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement.
Gov’t’s pressure for closure of Turkish schools abroad yields no result
The movement that started out a quarter-century ago to support education for children abroad starting with the autonomous Azerbaijani republic of Nakhchivan has now reached 160 foreign countries, with the founders of the movement and its volunteers welcomed with open arms around the world.
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