A Religious Scholar Under the Name of Fethullah Gülen

When Gülen is mentioned, one thinks of unbelievably sincere manners, genuine humility, and tolerance as great as the oceans. I visited the schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Almati, Merv, and Ashkabad. Russian, Turkmen, and Kazakh students read poetry in Turkish. They are educated with the most modern means. In my opinion, instead of binding these schools to the Ministry of National Education, we should allow Gülen to administer the state schools in Turkey!

A flower is not easily grown in a swamp. We are trying our best to pull up the flowers, make them fade and destroy them! What a shame!

In the future, Turkey's greatest public support is going to come from students studying in those schools beyond our borders. A Russian official succinctly stated the essence of this work: "There are two important events in Russian life: One of these is Yuri Gagarin's being sent into space before the Americans, and the other is the opening of these schools."

If foreigners are thinking like this, what are we doing?

Cenk Koray, Aksam daily, 3/13/98