Every continent but Antarctica:
Gulen schools country by country
(enrollment, number of schools, etc)
Page created Nov 24, 2011 Last updated Mar 8, 2015
by C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. - Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools CASILIPS on Twitter, slideshare
Note: it has not been possible to independently verify the estimates given below for the number of students in Gulen schools or chains of schools. The source is given for all estimates; readers will have to judge reliability for themselves. One possible source of confusion is the Gulenist use of the euphemism "Turkish school" to refer to their own schools, even though there are some Turkish schools outside Turkey that are not Gulen-run.
Afghanistan 5600 students (2012); 40,000 students (2008; overestimate or may include non-Gulen Turkish schools?)
Source: Turkish Weekly, July 19, 2005
"Today, there are 35 teachers, including 18 from Turkey, for the 500 students at the Kabul school."
Source: Turkiye/Turkey Forum Jan 16, 2008
"First Turkish school was opened at 1996. ... Schools built by TIKA [Turkish Cooperation and Development Administration ] have been transferred to the Afghan administration. There are 40,000 students in these schools today. (2007)" Note: while it is known that TIKA has supported some Gulen schools, it is not clear that all the "Turkish schools" referred to here are Gulen schools.
Source: Pajhwok Afghan News May 5, 2012
"Ozturk added 5,600 students had been studying in Afghan-Turk schools. Of 528 teachers in these schools, 150 are Turkish citizens.....About 2,900 students had so far graduated from Afghan-Turk schools, Wardak said, adding that another 2,600 were studying in various higher education intuitions in Turkey."
Albania several thousand students (2010)
Source: New Islamic actors after the Wahhabi intermezzo: Turkey’s return to the Muslim Balkans. Kerem Oktem. Oxford 2010
"In all three countries [Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia] the organisational structure and the content of the curriculum is close to identical and mirrors Gulen schools in Turkey and elsewhere. ...In the Western Balkans, there are currently ten such colleges with several thousand students."
"Burc, or Burch University, in Sarajevo is a spin-off from the Turkish College and the Bosnia Sema Foundation. It was established in 2008 and, for now, is a rather modest institution with only 300 undergraduates and 16 professors, both of which mostly hail from Turkey. ...Another such institute of higher education is Tirana’s Epoka University, which has succeeded in positioning itself as a more influential institution in the country’s academic life. Both universities are private foundations and charge considerable fees, and both are in close contact with Fatih University, which is the University of the Cemaat in Istanbul."
Argentina 110 students (2007)
Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkish Daily News March 20, 2007 "Turkish Community in Buenos Aires"
"The ATFF [Argentina-Turkey Friendship Foundation] also supported opening up a school in Buenos Aires. Colegio Hercules is the first Argentinean-Turkish school. It was established in 2006. Today the school has 110 students. Colegio Hercules is one of the Turkish schools that are run by Fethullah Gulen - a former Islamic preacher, writer, and leader of the eponymous group alternatively called Gulen's movement, or Fethullahci movement in Turkey. ... The movement runs several hundred schools, mostly in Turkey and Central Asia. In these schools children from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are educated by mainly Turkish educators."
Australia >1505 students (2009)
Source: Cemen Polat, Dec 2009 "Gulen-inspired schools in Australia: educational vision and funding"
"The establishment and foundation of Gulen-inspired schools began in Australia in 1996. By 2009, 16 Gulen-inspired schools had been established in Australia."
"Sule College is non profit, independent and non denominational school which was established in 1996 and was built by the Turkish Community. The school started with only 33 students, however, today there are 3 campuses in NSW; Prestons, Auburn and Illawara. The current number of students in primary schools is 753 and 752 in secondary and caters for Kindergarten up to Year 12."
Note that in addition to the Sule College chain, there is the Isik College chain and Damla College; estimates for their enrollments will be added as soon as they are found.
Azerbaijan 22 schools (2006); 12 schools (2004)
Source: Svante E. Cornell, October 2006 Silk Road Paper, Central Asia Caucasus Institute - Silk Road Studies Program "The Politicization of Islam in Azerbaijan"
"The Gulen movement’s educational activities in Azerbaijan are led by Cag Ogretim isletmeleri A.S.., a private Turkish company that runs a network of Turkish high schools and one university. Currently, there are 10 high schools, one elementary school, one gymnasium, 10 university preparation schools, and one university (Qafqaz University). ... The Qafqaz University, which was established in 1993, has been one of the leading private institutions of higher education in Azerbaijan. ... Students that want to enroll at Turkish high schools (starting from the sixth grade level) have to pass a competitive test, and if accepted, have to pay an annual tuition fee that ranges from $1500 to $3000. Thus, most of the enrolled students at these schools are either from the middle or the upper class families."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5)."
Bangladesh 1300 students
Source: Shafiq Raman, Probe News Magazine "At the Turkish Hope School"
"As the founder Principal, Kazim Eldes set up the International Hope School in Gulshan in rented premises in 1996. It was then formally inaugurated in 1997 by the Turkish President Sulyman Demirel. ... The school now has an impressive campus in Uttara Sector 4. It has five other campuses in Gulshan and Uttara as well. It has a total of 1300 students at present. ... Turkish Hope School is not limited to Dhaka only, but is extending to other districts. The Principal says that they soon will be opening branches in other places of the country. The Chittagong campus has already been running since 2005. It goes up to Class VIII there. A campus is now underway in Bogra."
Source: school website, 2011 http://www.ithsbd.net/en/branches
"International Turkish Hope School (I.T.H.S.) started as a sole branch with few students. However with the sincere efforts of its dedicated management the total number of students has grown up. Now we have five branches in Dhaka and two branches outside of Dhaka. We also have a branch in Chittagong and Bogra."
Bosnia and Herzegovina >3500 students; 14 schools (2012)
Source: Southeast Europe Times, Dec 21, 2012
"Turkey's network of schools in the Balkans has strong roots and continues to grow. Bosna Sema, a Turkish educational organisation, has opened 14 schools in four cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1996. The group's schools offer education at all levels, from primary school to university.
" 'We are very satisfied with the dynamics of education and achieved results, and we intend to make it stay that way in the future,' Mubera Saracevic, secretary general of Bosna Sema schools, told SETimes. 'When we started with this story in 1996, we had only two classes of pupils. Today, we have over 3,500 pupils and students in our educational institutions, and over 500 employees. We intend to continue to expand our schools and build new ones.' "
Cambodia 800 students (2011)
Source: soL (Turkish news outlet) March 21, 2011 "Fethullahçı hocaların silah sevdası" (Fethullah-follower teachers love of weapons)
"Şimdilerde 800’den fazla öğrencisi olan okulu" (the school now with more than 800 students)
Ethiopia 4 schools (2009)
Source: Addis Fortune, Sep 13, 2009, "Girma Keen to See More of Turkish Investment in Ethiopia"
"Girma also praised the cooperation between TUSKON and the Turkish schools, pointing out that the director of the four Turkish schools in Addis Abeba accompanied him during the last TUSKON trade bridge."
Germany 645 students (2007)
Source: Kommunal-Info Mannheim, June 10, 2010 "Die Gülen-Gymnasien Deutschlands"
"Im Jahr 2007 waren an den Schulen der Gülen-Gemeinde insgesamt 645 Schüler eingeschrieben."
Translation: In 2007, a total of 645 students were enrolled in schools of the Gulen community.
News articles:
Feb 19, 2008 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Integration: Die türkischen Bildungsbürger "
Mar 28, 2010 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Türkische Schulen in Deutschland: Muslime mit calvinistischem Ehrgeiz"
Iraq 12,000 students,30 schools (Dec 2012); 9000 students, 26 schools (Jan 2012)
6500 students, 20 schools (2011); 3200 students (2009)
Source: Hizmet Movement blog, Dec 17, 2012
"...Talip Buyuk, the general director of the Fezalar Education Company, which has opened 30 schools in Iraq, 18 of them in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the rest in various Iraqi cities, including three in Baghdad. ... Now there are approximately 12,000 students in Turkish schools in Iraq."
Source: Aydinlik (Turkish news outlet) Jan 3, 2012
"Cemaatin Irak genelinde bu açılışla birlikte 26 okulu oldu. Bunlardan 16’sı Kuzey Irak’ta hizmet veriyor. Ülke genelinde 9 bin öğrenci cemaatin okullarında okuyor."
Source: Today's Zaman, Mar 4, 2011
"At present there are 20 Turkish schools which accommodate about 6500 students. ... Turkish schools have been operating in Iraq since 1994..."
Source: Transnational Middle-East Observer (blog of Wladimir van Wilgenburg) Sep 13, 2009
"The Fezalar schools are quite popular for the Kurdish elite. In the last years they had 3200 students and 800 graduates."
Kazakhstan 4803 students, 29 schools (2004); 1400 students (2010; only entering students?); 29 schools (2003)
Source: Filiz Baskan, "The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey: The Role of
Fethullah Gulen and Asya Finans," in The Politics of Islamic Finance, ed. Clement
M. Henry and Rodney Wilson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004).
“For instance, the Fethullah Gulen Community established 1 university, 28 secondary schools and 1 primary school in Kazakhstan alone. These schools enrolled 4,803 students and employed 525 faculty members in 1998.”
Source: Time Magazine, "The Turkish Imam and His Global Educational Mission," Pelin Turgut, April 26, 2010. "Sel is now director of 28 high schools in Kazakhstan, from three when he first arrived. Entrance is by competitive exam. This year, 30,000 students applied for 1,400 spots..." [It is unclear whether the number 1,400 refers only to entering students, or if it also includes continuing students.]
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5)."
Kenya 1200 students (2008) 6 schools (2008)
Source: [Gulen-inspired Schools in the East Africa Secular Alternative in Kenya and
Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda by Mehmet Kalyoncu
"The first Gulen-inspired school in Kenya was opened in 1998.....in total there are six Gulen-inspired schools in Kenya. .... Currently, 350 students are registered in the Light Academy secondary-high school in Nairobi, and the school administration aims to raise this number to 550-600. Similarly, the Light Academy secondary-high school in Mombasa has 250 students... Moreover, the Light Academy primary schools both in Nairobi and Mombasa average 300 students registered."
Kyrgyzstan 4616 students (2010) 12 schools (2003)
Source: Ahmet Orhan Polat October 19, 2010 "The Key Factors Behind the Success of Gülen-Inspired Schools" from Proceedings, Gulen Conference in Indonesia.
"there were around 510 teachers and 4616 students in Gulen-inspired schools in Kyrgyzstan in 2007."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5)."
Libya 27 "education initiatives" (2012)
Source: Today's Zaman, Feb 23, 2012 "Libyan minister would like to see Turkish teachers, schools in his country"
"Encouraged by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, Turkish entrepreneurs have established hundreds of schools across the world,......Ghariani said Turkish companies currently have 27 education initiatives in Libya worth $10 million, and some of them are ongoing projects."
Madagascar 800 students (2011)
Source: Hizmet Movement blog English translation of May 21, 2011 Turkish-langauge article from Star Gundem
"800 students receive education in three Turkish schools in Madagascar."
Moldova 820 students (1993)
Source: Zaman newspaper, June 14, 2006
"The Moldova-Turkish Schools opened as private schools in 1993 with 50 teachers and 820 students."
Nepal 1200 students (2011)
Source: Zaman newspaper, Feb 18, 2011; translation given here.
"That means Turkish volunteers who were inpired by Fethullah Gulen‘s ideals have arrived to Nepal almost 10 years ago to educate the youth of the country. ...“We opened the first Turkish school in 2002 with 100 students. Today, we have 1200 students..."
Source: Zaman newspaper, Feb 18, 2011; translation given here.
"That means Turkish volunteers who were inpired by Fethullah Gulen‘s ideals have arrived to Nepal almost 10 years ago to educate the youth of the country. ...“We opened the first Turkish school in 2002 with 100 students. Today, we have 1200 students..."
Nigeria 4700 students, 17 schools (2015); 3200 students; 17 schools (2011); 4000 students; 15 schools (2010)
Source: Daily Trust (Nigerian news outlet) Feb 26, 2015 "The Turkish has 17 schools in six states of Kano, Yobe, Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos with over 4,700 students."
Source: Hasan Aydin, PhD thesis, University of Nevada-Reno, 2011 "The Educational Effectiveness of Guelen-inspired Schools: The Case of Nigeria"
"The schools involved in this study are members of Nigerian Turkish International College (here in referred to as the NTIC schools, the term ―college signifying school in the British parlance) network, first established in Nigeria in 1998, with branches now operating in the states of Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Ogun, and Yobe, a total of seventeen schools in all with a population of three thousand two hundred students attending at the nursery, primary, secondary, and pre-university levels."
Source: Today's Zaman, March 4, 2010 "Nigerian Turkish college students win dozens of medals"
"The 15 Turkish schools, a university preparation course program and a university are currently educating more than 4,000 students. ... The latest of these schools, the Nigerian-Turkish Nile University, opened its doors this year and admitted 200 students."
Source: Daily Trust (Nigerian news outlet) Feb 26, 2015 "The Turkish has 17 schools in six states of Kano, Yobe, Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos with over 4,700 students."
Source: Hasan Aydin, PhD thesis, University of Nevada-Reno, 2011 "The Educational Effectiveness of Guelen-inspired Schools: The Case of Nigeria"
"The schools involved in this study are members of Nigerian Turkish International College (here in referred to as the NTIC schools, the term ―college signifying school in the British parlance) network, first established in Nigeria in 1998, with branches now operating in the states of Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Ogun, and Yobe, a total of seventeen schools in all with a population of three thousand two hundred students attending at the nursery, primary, secondary, and pre-university levels."
Source: Today's Zaman, March 4, 2010 "Nigerian Turkish college students win dozens of medals"
"The 15 Turkish schools, a university preparation course program and a university are currently educating more than 4,000 students. ... The latest of these schools, the Nigerian-Turkish Nile University, opened its doors this year and admitted 200 students."
Pakistan 7500 students, 32 schools (Jan 2014); ~6000 students, 18 schools (Nov 2011); 5200 students (Oct 2011)
Source: Business Recorder, Karachi, Pakistan, Jan 30, 2014
"Bilici referred to 32 Pak-Turk Foundations schools in Pakistan as a model of bilateral cooperation in which 750 teachers, including 140 Turk national, are imparting education to 7,500 students across the country."
Source: Zaman, Nov 13, 2011
"Pakistan'da halen 7 ayrı şehirde kurulan 18 okulda yaklaşık 6 bin öğrenci Türk okullarında eğitim görüyor. İlk olarak Kayserili işadamlarının açtığı Pak-Türk okullarına son yıllarda Pakistanlı işadamları da büyük destek veriyor."
Source: Press Release of Pakturk Cag Educational Foundation, Oct 7, 2011
"PakTurk educational institutions currently educate more than 5200 students by internationally qualified Pakistani and Turkish teaching and administrative faculty across Pakistan."
Source: Business Recorder, Karachi, Pakistan, Jan 30, 2014
"Bilici referred to 32 Pak-Turk Foundations schools in Pakistan as a model of bilateral cooperation in which 750 teachers, including 140 Turk national, are imparting education to 7,500 students across the country."
Source: Zaman, Nov 13, 2011
"Pakistan'da halen 7 ayrı şehirde kurulan 18 okulda yaklaşık 6 bin öğrenci Türk okullarında eğitim görüyor. İlk olarak Kayserili işadamlarının açtığı Pak-Türk okullarına son yıllarda Pakistanlı işadamları da büyük destek veriyor."
Source: Press Release of Pakturk Cag Educational Foundation, Oct 7, 2011
"PakTurk educational institutions currently educate more than 5200 students by internationally qualified Pakistani and Turkish teaching and administrative faculty across Pakistan."
Romania close to 3000 students; 11 schools (2012)
Source: Hizmet News, Dec 23, 2012, English translation of Zaman article, Nov 16 2012
"The Lumina Educational Institutions was established by Turkish entrepreneurs in 1994 and now has 11 schools throughout the 6 significant cities: Bucharest, Constanta, Iasi, Cluj, Timisoara, and Ploesti with close to 3,000 enrolled students."
Source: Hizmet News, Dec 23, 2012, English translation of Zaman article, Nov 16 2012
"The Lumina Educational Institutions was established by Turkish entrepreneurs in 1994 and now has 11 schools throughout the 6 significant cities: Bucharest, Constanta, Iasi, Cluj, Timisoara, and Ploesti with close to 3,000 enrolled students."
Senegal 1700 students; 7 schools (2012)
Source: Haber Afrika "Türk okulları Afrika'da sömürgeci eğitimin yol açtığı fukaralığı bitirecek" Jan 23, 2012 "bugün 7 okul, 1.700 öğrenci var"
Source: Haber Afrika "Türk okulları Afrika'da sömürgeci eğitimin yol açtığı fukaralığı bitirecek" Jan 23, 2012 "bugün 7 okul, 1.700 öğrenci var"
Tajikistan 2,750 students; 7 schools (2008)
Source: Today's Zaman, Nov 28, 2008
"During the visit, Şelale Education Company Manager Mesut Ata briefed Babacan about Turkish schools operating in the country. He said the Şelale Education Company was established in 1992 and currently runs seven schools, one language center and a dormitory for male students. .....Currently, there are 2,750 students in Tajikistan who receive an education at the Turkish schools. The schools employ 332 teachers in total, 88 of whom come from Turkey."
Source: Today's Zaman, Nov 28, 2008
"During the visit, Şelale Education Company Manager Mesut Ata briefed Babacan about Turkish schools operating in the country. He said the Şelale Education Company was established in 1992 and currently runs seven schools, one language center and a dormitory for male students. .....Currently, there are 2,750 students in Tajikistan who receive an education at the Turkish schools. The schools employ 332 teachers in total, 88 of whom come from Turkey."
Turkmenistan 1 school (all other primary/secondary schools closed in 2011)
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003:5)."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003:5)."
Ukraine 430 students (2013)
Source: http://www.hizmetnews.com/index.php/latest-news/item/880-parliament-speaker-cicek-visits-turkish-school-in-kiev "Established in 2001, Meridian International Schools offer education to 430 students from 28 different nations. 98 Ukrainian as well as 13 Turkish teachers are employed at the school located in the historic district Podil in Kiev."
Source: http://www.hizmetnews.com/index.php/latest-news/item/880-parliament-speaker-cicek-visits-turkish-school-in-kiev "Established in 2001, Meridian International Schools offer education to 430 students from 28 different nations. 98 Ukrainian as well as 13 Turkish teachers are employed at the school located in the historic district Podil in Kiev."
United States of America >51,950 students; 141 K-12 schools (2012)
Source: Perimeter Primate blog
"For the 2011-2012 school year, Gulen charter schools enrolled 51,950 students. The calculation for the 2010-2011 school year was 44,727." [Note that this number does not include the enrollment in private Gulen schools.]
For list of 135 charter schools, see click here. For list of 6 private schools, click here (list also shows universities, adult education and preschools).
Source: Perimeter Primate blog
"For the 2011-2012 school year, Gulen charter schools enrolled 51,950 students. The calculation for the 2010-2011 school year was 44,727." [Note that this number does not include the enrollment in private Gulen schools.]
For list of 135 charter schools, see click here. For list of 6 private schools, click here (list also shows universities, adult education and preschools).
Uzbekistan all schools closed in 1999
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5). The only Turkic Central Asian country which has been hostile to the movement’s schools is Uzbekistan. It has not only repressed Islamic action as a result of fear of the Islamic threat but also banned the movement’s schools since 1999."
Source: Filiz Baskan, "The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey: The Role of
Fethullah Gulen and Asya Finans," in The Politics of Islamic Finance, ed. Clement
M. Henry and Rodney Wilson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004).
“In Uzbekistan, 18 secondary schools were established, with 3,500 students and 200 teachers.”
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5). The only Turkic Central Asian country which has been hostile to the movement’s schools is Uzbekistan. It has not only repressed Islamic action as a result of fear of the Islamic threat but also banned the movement’s schools since 1999."
Source: Filiz Baskan, "The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey: The Role of
Fethullah Gulen and Asya Finans," in The Politics of Islamic Finance, ed. Clement
M. Henry and Rodney Wilson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004).
“In Uzbekistan, 18 secondary schools were established, with 3,500 students and 200 teachers.”
Vietnam > 800 students (Mar 2010)
Source: SaigonNezumi.com (blog) March 25, 2010
"Zaman International Schools was founded in 1997 and currently enrolls over 800 students."
Information about more countries will be added in the near future.
Source: SaigonNezumi.com (blog) March 25, 2010
"Zaman International Schools was founded in 1997 and currently enrolls over 800 students."
Information about more countries will be added in the near future.