Media Involvement

Media is an essential and inevitable tool for the movement to reach out to larger society and increase public awareness about the “common good” such as education and dialogue.

The Gulen movement seeks to build “social capital” through engagement with the full range of human practices, creating civil societies through media projects that promote moral living and robust encounters with beauty, goodness, and truth; “works of love.” Media can be oriented positively to foster social compassion and charity, to critique injustice and violence, to provide voices for otherwise silenced citizens, and to hold up for societies and individuals the highest, rather than the lowest, human aspirations and ethical horizons.

Fethullah Gülen encouraged his followers to go into publishing as a way of spreading the importance of education and service. The liberalization of the political environment and the opportunity for independent and uncensored news media introduced in 1980s provided the context in which private publishing establishments were possible in Turkey.

In 1979 a group of teachers inspired by Mr. Gülen’s ideas of education established the Teachers’ Foundation to support education. This Foundation began to publish its own monthly journal, Sizinti, which became the highest selling monthly journal in Turkey. Its mission was to relate science and religion, to show that the two were not incompatible and that knowledge of both was essential to a successful education. Each issue of the journal carries an editorial written by Mr. Gülen.

Several participants of the movement bought Zaman Newspaper in 1986 to be the voice of the unheard, weak and ignored. Samanyolu TV started to broadcast in 1993, weekly magazine started off in1994 and many radio stations around the country were opened in 1990s.

On the other hand, media is vital to respond to defamation of the movement. As media used to be owned by few families and they tended to be ultra secular and ultra nationalist in Turkey in 1980s and 1990s, alternative media outlets could provide second opinion about not only the movement but issues concerned by less represented.

Media & Publishing Institutions

Among several Gülen-inspired television stations in Turkey, Samanyolu TV is committed to balanced, objective, and socially responsible reporting of news; family-oriented programming; and the promotion of interfaith and intercultural dialogue. The station broadcasts globally by means of satellite.

The mission of Ebru TV, broadcast in the United States, is to continually educate, inspire and entertain viewers of all ages through original first-rate programming in the sciences, sporting events, fine arts, and every aspect of culture.

Zaman newspaper is the largest circulating daily in Turkey. Inspired by Gülen’s ideas, Zaman reports diverse ideological perspectives and opinions in an objective fashion, emphasizes dialogue and tolerance, and has been a rigorous advocate for freedom of speech. It is published in multiple languages and distributed in 35 countries.

The media group in Turkey that is considered to be inspired by Gülen’s ideas includes Aksiyon, the leading weekly magazine, and Cihan News Agency, which is active in more than 50 countries.

Among several Gülen-inspired periodicals, Sizinti, the monthly magazine of popular science and culture, has been published since 1979. With nearly a million subscribers, it is the bestseller of its kind in Turkey. The Fountain, a magazine of scientific and spiritual thought, is published in English-speaking countries.

There are more than twenty publishing houses in Turkey inspired by Gülen’s thought. Publishing in many languages and great numbers, they are considered to have vastly contributed to the fields of education and literature.

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has been an advocate for human rights and equality throughout his life in his native South Africa and around the world.
– Fethullah Gulen

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

The Alliance for Shared Values (AfSV), a U.S.-based non-profit representing regional Hizmet organizations, together with many other Hizmet-affiliated nonprofits around the world, published a landmark document that helps define and guide the civil society movement’s activities for years to come.

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

The Turkey Tribunal, a civil society-led, symbolic international tribunal established to adjudicate recent human rights violations in Turkey, started proceedings in Geneva on Monday where rapporteurs pointed to the use of systematic torture by the government against alleged members of the faith-based Gülen movement and Kurds.

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

In the first chapter of his book: “A Genocide in the Making?” Zooming on “Erdogan’s regime crackdown on the Gulen Movement”, Dr. Bulent Kenes clearly refers to “genocide” as a set of “systematic violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to terminate their existence.”

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

The signatory states and their courts need to decide where their loyalty lies: With the authoritarian Erdogan government or with the human rights and judicial guarantees solemnly enshrined in their respective constitutions?

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Appearing on TV that night, Erdogan claimed no pre-knowledge of the incident and immediately blamed Gulen supporters in the military. However, Western governments and observers were not convinced. Experts noted the implausibility of a civilian living on another continent organizing a military coup and not being detected by U.S., Turkish or other intelligence agencies.

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Erdogan’s government has made Gulenists “the enemy you ascribe to everything that goes poorly in Turkey,” according to Henri Barkey, a fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

Yusuf Özmen, a cancer patient who has been sentenced to 8 years, 9 months in prison due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, has recently been sent back to prison after the supreme court of appeals upheld the prison sentence.

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

Ünzile Köşker, who was jailed for alleged links to the Gülen movement, was not allowed to enroll at a university despite passing the nationwide entrance exam because she “posed a risk,” Bold Medya reported.

Bulgaria, the state sentenced to compensate Turkish journalist

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Bulgaria for the 2016 extradition of a Turkish journalist, hastily handed over to the Turkish authorities who accused him of being part of the Fehtullah Gülen movement, in violation of national and international rules.

Source: https://hizmetnews.com