Turkish PM Davutoğlu says ‘even an atheist should have religious knowledge’

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said that “even an atheist should have religious knowledge,” responding to questions over a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision regarding compulsory religious classes in Turkey.

“It is necessary for an atheist to have knowledge of religious culture, just like I know about Marxism despite not being a Marxist,” Davutoğlu said on Sept. 17 during a visit to the Education Ministry.

Turkey wants Turk-born kids brought up in native culture

Under a massive new campaign to preserve Turkey's cultural identity, children of Turkish immigrants in Europe placed with non-Turk families by social services may be retrieved to be “raised in an environment similar to their native culture.”
Ankara has launched a comprehensive drive and is mobilizing diplomatic efforts to retrieve Turkish children placed in foster care in a number of European countries, Bekir Bozdag, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, recently announced.
The move comes after a court in the Netherlands refused to return Yunus, a nine year-old Turkish boy, to his biological Turkish family because his mother did not speak Dutch.

The 90th Commemoration of the Greek Holocaust

August 17th, 2012

Contact:  Bill Theodosakis:  (718)-377-4656
               Ioannis Fidanakis: (973)-464-0211

(New York, NY) – The Asia Minor Holocaust Memorial Observance Committee would like to invite you to this year’s annual Commemoration of the Greek Holocaust at Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church on September 23rd, 2012. Organized by Archon Bill Theodosakis, this is the longest running annual commemoration for the Greek Genocide in the United States.