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Presidency of Religious Affairs (Turkey)

Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı

Flag of Diyanet - Image by Jens Pattke, 11 November 2012

Presentation of Diyanet
Flag of Diyanet
Turkish Diyanet Foundation (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı - TDV)

See also:

Presentation of Diyanet

The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Wikipedia), normally referred to simply as the Diyanet, is an official institution established in 1924 after the abolition of the Caliphate and prescribed in Article 136 of the Constitution. Founded by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as a successor to Sheikh ul-Islam, it represents the highest Islamic religious authority in the country. As a a successor to Sheikh ul-Islam, the Diyanet is also arguably the highest authority on Sunni Islam in the Islamic world.

Jens Pattke, 11 November 2012

Flag of Diyanet

The flag of Diyanet (photo) is white with the Organization's emblem.

Jens Pattke, 11 November 2012

Turkish Diyanet Foundation

Flag of TDV, current and former versions - Images by Ivan Sache, 24 February 2018

The Turkiye Diyanet Foundation (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı - TDV) was established on 13 March 1975 by Dr. Lütfi Dogan, who was the President of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) at that time, and Dr. Tayyar Altıkulaç and Yakup Ustun, who were Vice Presidents of Religious Affairs, and Ahmet Uzunoglu, who was the Director of Personnel Affairs.
TDV has a wide range of activities in its 1,000 branches in Turkey and 135 countries across the world ranging from educational, cultural, social and charitable services to religious services support and international aid activities.

TDV gives scholarships to successful students and opens higher education student housing, student wellness homes, colleges and universities and provides education opportunities to students form 110 countries across the globe through projects like the International Imam Khateeb High School (a network of five high schools located in İstanbul, Kayseri, Konya, Bursa and Sivas, educating 1,&00 students from 72 countries), the International Theology Program (established in 2006 with Diyanet), and the International Host Student Program.
TDV established in 1994 the Bornova College, where 1,200 students are receiving education at primary, secondary and high school level, and the İstanbul 29 May University. Educating 1,400 students at an undergraduate, masters and doctoral level, the institution is planned to be transformed into the International Islamic University.
TDV manages dormitories for a total of 6,000 higher education students in 15 Turkish towns. Another 373 student homes located in 40 towns house 2,500 students. TDV further established six education coordination centers in Ankara, Kayseri, Konya and İstanbul (2).
TDV opened colleges faculties and universities in Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Romania, Somalia and Haiti.

TDV operates charity activities, such as the Ramadan Program, and deliver food aid packages to deprived and needy people in Turkey and another 500 regions scattered over 88 countries via the Qurban Program, active in 130 countries,
TDV delivers humanitarian aid to Turkmens in Syria and Iraq, Palestine/Gaza, to Rohingya people from Myanmar seeking refuge in the camps in Bangladesh, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Philippines , Haiti, Mali<, Central African Republic, Somalia, Chad, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

TDV founded in 1983 the Center for Islamic Religious Studies (ISAM), whose emblematic work was the Encyclopaedia of Islam (44 volumes). TDV also owns a network of 30 publishing houses.
[TDV presentation booklet]

The connections between the Diyanet Foundation, the Diyanet and the Turkish state have been widely criticized, in the frame of the global "mega-mosque" plan set up by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to export his nation’s brand of Islam.
The Turkish Republic in 1924 founded Diyanet to oversee affairs related to faith and worship of the religion of Islam, such as paying the salaries of Turkish and foreign imams. The aim was to separate religion from politics. But since Erdoğan’s AKP came to power in 2002, Diyanet has transformed into a propaganda vehicle serving and exporting Turkey’s religious society.
It is not clear how much of the financing for the Diyanet Foundation – which needs 100s of millions of Euro to build these foreign mosques – is from the collection plate, corporate donors or wealthy individuals. Or indeed Diyanet itself. The foundation’s donations in 2014 were 120 million Euro, compared to 50 million Euro in 2010. This figure has increased by almost two and a half times in four years, at a time when the country’s growth rate tumbled from 12 per cent to two per cent. A copy of a written answer to a parliamentary question raised in 2014, confirms that taxpayer money was spent on the mega-mosque projects abroad, but it does not disclose how much Diyanet transferred to its Foundation.
[The Black Sea, 29 September 2015]

The flag of TDV (photo) is white with the organization's emblem and the organization's name, in black letters, beneath the emblem. A slightly different flag (photo) has the writing in Turkish (dark blue), English (light blue), and Arabic script (dark blue).
Until very recently, TDV appears to have used a blue flag with the emblem and writing in white (photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo).

Ivan Sache, 24 February 2018