Turkish media is reporting that several organizations connected to AKP party members and President Erdoğan’s son Bilal have received EU funding. According to the Veryansın TV report:
January 15th, 2022: The Turkish National Agency, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Presidency of the European Union, announced the organizations receiving European Union grants. While 109 projects were selected from 725 projects within the scope of the ‘Erasmus Plus-Youth Program’, the grants distributed include foundations where President Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan is a senior manager. The Turkish Youth and Education Service Foundation (TÜRGEV) received 98,570 euros, the Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA) received 155,310 and the World Ethnospor Confederation received 146,612 euros. Thus, only 400,492 euros, more than TL 6 million at today’s exchange rate, in grants were given to Bilal Erdoğan’s foundations. Among the organizations receiving grants is the New World Foundation, which is chaired by Mahmut Göksu, a former Member of the High Consultation Board of the Scientific Dissemination Society, with 173,542 euros. Mazlumder member and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Assembly 2nd Deputy Chairman Ömer Faruk Kalaycı is the vice president of the Divan Research and Education Association, which is on the list with 171,723 euros. [Translated by Bing with edits]
Read the rest here.
The Turkish Youth and Education Service Foundation (TÜRGEV), where Bilal Erdoğan is a senior manager, was founded in 1996 under President Erdoğan, then Mayor of Istanbul, and provides dormitories scholarships and other programs to female students in Turkey. Its board also includes Erdoğan’s daughter, Esra Albayrak.
The Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), where Bilal Erdoğan is also a senior manager, describes itself as “a new-generation youth foundation founded to raise a generation that will always be on the side of justice, defending everything that is good and beautiful in the world.” The foundation manages dormitories, provides scholarships, and runs various education programs in Turkey and abroad. The foundation also organizes social activities around “values education” in religious and secondary schools.
Other Islamist ties of groups receiving EU funding include New World Foundation Chair Mahmut Göksu, a founder of Erdoğan’s AKP party. Divan Research and Education Association VP Ömer Faruk Kalaycı has had several positions in the AKP, and Mazlumder, where he is a member, is a human rights NGO that is also part of the Turkish Global Muslim Brotherhood network.
COMMENTS
Comments are closed here.