Court in Kyrgyzstan overturns decision made to extradite 2 people #GulenSchools

https://thediplomat.com/2019/12/turkey-seeks-extradition-of-2-gulen-school-employees-from-kyrgyzstan/?fbclid=IwAR3GJOXILtO6c5KFKGLpS-TRAFU_Fl1P7_tEhdqKIZ29bbbObFQ-VujeK8s

Previously posted on Kyrgyz here 
Click Here

A court in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, reportedly overturned a decision made by the Prosector General’s Office to extradite two people — presumably Turkish citizens — back to Turkey on account of their connection to Fethullah Gulen’s movement. 

According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, locally known as Azattyk, two employees of the Sapat school network, Senan Yilmaz and Sanjar Abdulhakim, have been in pre-trial detention at a State Committee for National Security (GKNB) facility. As reported by 24.kg, they are “accused of complicity in an illegal armed group and membership in an armed terrorist organization in Turkey.”

Since 2016, the Turkish government has hounded those associated, however distantly, with Gulen. Ankara has accused U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of plotting the apparent coup attempted on July 15, 2016. Once upon a time Gulen was a stalwart ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but those days are long past.

As I wrote in 2018, “Gulen founded a movement which has, among other things, built and staffed hundreds of schools around the world. Once a key aspect of Turkish soft power, these schools have become lightning rods in Turkey’s various contemporary bilateral relationships.”

The network of Turkish schools in Kyrgyzstan, known previously as Sebat lyceums, were renamed and reregistered in 2017 but not closed as they are considered some of the best schools in the country. Top officials send their children to the prestigious schools. The Kyrgyz Ministry of Education in 2018 rebuffed comments from the Turkish ambassador that a Turkish foundation was about to take the network over, saying the schools were under Kyrgyz government control.

Ukrainian authorities crack down on the Gulen Movement #GulenSchool #FETO

https://www.rferl.org/a/turkey-ukraine-erdogan-wrath-ukraine-live-in-fear-of-kyiv-kidnapping-/29715899.html

KYIV -- Yunus Erdogdu has been afraid to leave the concrete confines of his apartment building on the outskirts of Kyiv since mid-July.

That's when Ukrainian authorities arrested and extradited within days of each other two fellow Turkish nationals-- a journalist and an entrepreneur -- whom Ankara alleges are linked to a failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more than two years ago.

Both men had Ukrainian work and residency permits. Yet both were denied the legally mandated five-day appeal period and quickly deported.

The repatriations were part of Erdogan's relentless campaign "in the East [and] in the West" to pursue supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based preacher and onetime Erdogan ally with a global network of schools and nonprofits as well as millions of followers.

The United States' failure to hand over Gulen himself has frayed relations between Washington and Ankara, but it has not deterred Turkish officials' aggressive pursuit of Gulenists elsewhere -- with dozens of the 77-year-old exile's alleged supporters nabbed and forcibly returned to Turkey since the attempted overthrow in 2016.

Such abductions have sent a powerful message to Erdogdu and others in the Turkish dissident community in Ukraine who are sympathetic to Gulen and his dissident vision for a tolerant, hard-working Turkish society.

The deportations from Ukraine, which shares a shoreline on the Black Sea with Turkey and has deepened cooperation with its government in recent years, has fueled speculation about a secret quid pro quo between the two countries' leaders and evoked comparisons to the CIA's extrajudicial abductions of terrorist suspects after 9/11. 

'Overnight Terrorist'

A veteran journalist and frequent critic of Turkey's increasingly autocratic president, Erdogdu has lived and worked legally in the Ukrainian capital for 13 years, most of it as a correspondent for the Cihan news agency.

But that all came crashing down in March 2016, when Turkish police raided Cihan's Istanbul headquarters hours after a court ruling placed it and Turkey's most popular newspaper, Zaman, under state control. Both were eventually shuttered over alleged links to Gulen.

Almost overnight, "I became a so-called terrorist," Erdogdu told RFE/RL over a collection of his article clippings in the modest high-rise apartment where he lives with his wife and three of their children.

Yunus Erdogdu describes himself as a proud Gulen "follower and supporter," but insists he is no terrorist.

Erdogan's government refers to Gulen supporters as members of FETO, or the " Fethullah Terrorist Organization."

Erdogdu, a proud Gulen "follower and supporter," is reportedly being sought by Turkish authorities for allegedly opposing the state and supporting the 2016 coup attempt. His name appeared on a leaked list of Turkish dissidents in Ukraine whom Ankara wants extradited.

Erdogdu insists he is no terrorist and had nothing to do with the coup. As a follower of Gulen, his "spiritual leader," Erdogdu said, he practices a tolerant Islam that promotes education, modesty, and hard work.

Afraid he may be "kidnapped" by Ukrainian security services he claims are working with their Turkish counterparts to spirit away dissidents like him, Erdogdu confines himself to his apartment, where he publishes a small news site that is critical of Erdogan.

"The streets are too dangerous for me," Erdogdu lamented, gesturing to the world outside his window.

Dozens Snatched Abroad

Back in Turkey, Erdogan has vowed to "cleanse" his country of its Gulen-linked enemies. His government has dismissed some 140,000 public servants and investigated on alleged terrorism charges more than 600,000 people. More than 50,000 have reportedly been formally charged and kept in jail during trial. 

Turkish police detained 538 people between November 26 and December 3 alone, and on January 10 authorities disbarred 17 judges and prosecutors over alleged Gulen links.

Meanwhile, Ankara's campaign to round up alleged Gulen supporters anywhere in the world has expanded.

"If not today, then tomorrow, one day every member of the FETO traitors' front will pay for his treason against the country and the nation," Erdogan told a congress of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) a year ago. 

The Turkish-led crackdown has already prompted school closures and more than 100 people being plucked from at least 18 countries. 

Ankara even hinted recently that its intelligence "operations" against Gulenists could soon extend to the United States, although it was unclear how forcefully Turkey might play its hand in that NATO ally's territory.

Turkish MIT and Moldova police REMOVE 6 Gulenists from country to face justice in Turkey #SerceGokhan

Turkish Secret Services Nab Six 'Gulenists' in Moldova

Moldovan and Turkish intelligence services on Thursday detained six Turkish nationals working for a private chain of high schools in Moldova that is linked to exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.   GULENIST Serce Gokhan TEACHING IN AMERICA taught at this school in Moldova click here Serce Gokhan click here

Madalin Necsutu

BIRN

 Chisinau

President Igor Dodon met the Turkish president Recep Erdogan on Ataturk International Airport on March 18 in Istanbul. Photo: Igor Dodon`s Facebook page

Turkish pro-government media on Thursday said the Turkish intelligence service, the MIT, had participated in the detaining of six Turkish nationals that morning in Moldova and had taken them into an unknown direction.

All six were teachers or students at the Horizont Turkish high-school private chain, which is seen as close to the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. One was only 14 years old, but he was shortly released.

"They were taken this morning, but my son and his professor were released. But another professor was taken after they broke down his door,” the father of the teen said.

He added that he feared that the others would be sent to Turkey on the first flight from Chisinau.

Vocal Europe

✔@thevocaleurope

MOLDOVA |

Alleged footage where Turkish educators affiliated to Gulen Community are detained in Moldova to be extradited to Turkey at the request of Erdogan Administration.

12:45 AM - Sep 6, 2018

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The detainees were named as Riza Dogan, director of the Durlesti branch of the Horizont school network, Hasan Karacaoglu, deputy general manager, Yasin Ozdil, responsible for public relations at the same school, Ahmet Bilgi, director of Ciocana branch of the school chain and Feridon Tufekci, director of the Ceadir-Lunga branch of the network.

Moldova's secret service, the SIS, stated that it had conducted an operation designed to prevent threats to national security in several localities. The actions were carried out by the SIS Antiterrorist Center.

However, Turkish media claimed it was their own intelligence service, the MIT, that carried out the detentions. "The MIT, which earlier dealt a major blow to FETO’s Balkan branch [Kosovo] ... is now conducting an operation in Moldova," a Turkish media outlet reported.

Turkey routinely styles Gulen supporters as members of the "FETO", the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation.

Turkey's government has vowed to track down and bring home people it sees as linked to Gulen. The Ankara government blames the exiled cleric for a failed coup in Turkey in 2016.

Turkey has also put countries in the Balkans under strong pressure to close down any educational or charitable institutions linked to Gulen.

On March 31, Turgay Sen, a Turkish national and director of the Horizont high-school private chain was detained without explanation by the SIS.

Sen was accused of financing terrorism and banned from leaving the country for 10 days, until April 10. He was released after he filled in a request for political asylum in Moldova to avoid extradition or rendition to Turkey.

Less than two weeks before Sen’s arrest, Moldovan President Igor Dodon announced that he had met his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan at Istanbul airport on March 18, and had talked about Turkey repairing the Presidency building in Chisinau, which was damaged in the street riots on April 7, 2009, which toppled the then Communist-led government.

Erdogan was expected in Moldova on August 27 on the National Day of Moldova to open the new Presidential Palace, but the ceremony has been postponed to October.

Dodon said on Wednesday on a TV political show that he expected the Turkish President for the grand opening.

There are five Horizont high schools in Moldova. The educational institution opened in 1993. They host 1,691 pupils and employ about 376 staff from Moldova, Turkey and Albania.

Kosovo and Bulgaria have both returned suspected “Gulenists” to Turkey despite sharp criticism from rights organisations, and sometimes from the EU.

In April, the European Union criticized Kosovo for deporting six Turkish alleged foes of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying it raised questions about Kosovo’s respect for human rights. The deportations on March 29 were approved by Kosovo’s interior minister and intelligence chief, prompting their dismissal by Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who said the officials had acted without his permission. The deportees allegedly had ties to the Gulen movement, which Turkey calls the “FETO terrorist movement”.

In October 2016, Bulgaria returned to Turkey at least six people who were allegedly linked to Gulen networks. Border police found them in Ruse, on the border with Romania, where they had attempted to cross over. After all of them claimed asylum, they were told that they would be taken a refugee centre – but the vehicle took them instead to the Turkish border.

Turkey has continued to pressure Bulgaria over the same issue, however. Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu recently reportedly asked his Bulgarian counterpart to check 14 organizations and schools where Turkey suspects Gulen supporters work.

In Macedonia, meanwhile, a court in August 2017 fined a dual Macedonian-Turkish citizen, a suspected Gulen supporter, for insulting Turkish President Erdogan on Facebook. Turkish Ambassador Tulin Erkal Kara hailed the court victory, which fined the accused 24,600 Macedonian denars [$4,600], saying it set an example. “All Turkish missions, agencies here carry out a serious struggle against FETÖ traitors and we managed to restrict their activities and this insult case helped us to silence

more here https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/turkish-teachers-detained-moldova-gulen.html

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/six-turkish-professors-detained-by-moldovan-secret-services-09-06-2018

Kyrgyzstan next to close Gulen CIA schools?

Is Kyrgyzstan under FETO's command? 

https://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/kyrgyzstan-under-fetos-command-2783412

The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), which has infiltrated all Turkish state institutions, has also infiltrated the business, education, art and public institutions in Kyrgyzstan. Despite Turkey’s warning Kyrgyzstan continues to tolerate FETÖ’s activities.

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has called claims that FETÖ is strong enough to conduct a coup in Kyrgyzstan as “absurd.”

Atambayev has called President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on five different occasions. In reaction to Atambayev’s dismissive attitude toward FETÖ, Erdoğan did not take the calls.

another article

https://thediplomat.com/2018/09/in-kyrgyzstan-erdogan-again-warns-of-gulen-network-coup/

In his recent two-day visit to Kyrgyzstan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to exert pressure on Bishkek to take action against the Gulen network, which Ankara accused of staging a failed coup in July 2016.

U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, once an Erdogan ally, is the loose center of a sprawling, amorphous social network. Gulen founded a movement which has, among other things, built and staffed hundreds of schools around the world, including in Central Asia where the schools filled a critical gap left by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Once a key aspect of Turkish soft power in the region, these schools have since become lightning rods in Turkey’s various contemporary bilateral relationships. After the failed coup, Turkish authorities demanded that Gulen-linked schools be shut down, lest they try to inspire a coup in Kyrgyzstan. That demand was met by prickly then-President Almazbek Atambayev’s sharp tongue: “If Turkey is so smart, why did it miss a coup?”

Kyrgyzstan renamed the schools but didn’t shut them.

Two years later Atambayev is out, Jeenbekov is in, and Turkey is still trying to pressure Kyrgzystan into shutting Gulen-linked schools and organizations. The network of Turkish schools in Kyrgyzstan, known previously as Sebat lyceums, were renamed and reregistered last year, but they were not closed as has happened in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Kazakhstan responded in a similar fashion, renaming schools but not shutting them down.

Earlier this year, when Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov made a two-day visit to Turkey — his first foreign visit outside of the former Soviet Union since taking office in November 2017 — the persistent Gulen issue arose. After talks with Jeenbekov, Erdogan said, “We made clear our expectations from Kyrgyzstan in the fight against FETO.”

FETO is what Turkish authorities call Gulen’s network, which it has dubbed the “Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization.”

Erdogan then went on to repeat its 2016 refrain suggesting a coup in Kyrgyzstan. “It is such an organization that it has the character to do the same to Kyrgyzstan tomorrow what it did to us today,” Erdogan said before commenting that he believed Jeenbekov “will act more shrewdly and take the needed measures more rapidly.”

At the time, Jeenbekov did not respond directly, only emphasizing his desire for closer relations with Turkey.

Erdogan’s recent foray to Kyrgyzstan included a meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart, attending a Kyrgyz-Turkish business forum, the opening of a new mosque and a visit to the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University for the ceremonial opening of a new medical department, as well as a summit of the Turkic Council and an appearance at the opening of the 3rd World Nomad Games.

In statements with Jeenbekov on September 1, Erdogan reportedly said he didn’t want the relationship to return to its poor 2016 state. He then brought out the old canard, saying that “We don’t want our brotherly people to encounter such problems” like a coup and that Gulen supporters “may infiltrate the interior ministry, military structures, such a coup may happen in Kyrgyzstan as well.”

Jeenbekov in turn emphasized that the schools were under government control and have an excellent reputation. As Chris Rickleton noted in an article for Eurasianet, Erdogan managed to slip a reference to the Gulen network into nearly all of his public appearances.

Turkey continues to hammer at the Gulen issue and Kyrgyzstan continues to hedge, balancing several important concerns.

First, the Gulen schools are critical to Kyrgyzstan’s educational system, which remains weak in significant ways. For example, a new school in Kyzyl-Ozgorush in southern Kyrgyzstan was constructed in 2010, but could fit only 120 students, leaving 600 to use the old school, built in 1957. Last year, the crumbling old school was declared unfit for use and students began classes in yurts, a situation that persists in the new school year, RFE/RL reported recently.

Second, and this follows the first point closely, Gulen schools have operated in Kyrgyzstan successfully for more than two decades. These schools have meaningful domestic constituencies, from former students to the parents of current students.

Third, a good working relationship with Turkey is important for Kyrgyzstan’s economy. While Kyrgyzstan’s trade volumes with Turkey fall behind Kazakhstan, Russia, and China in particular, Turkey remains an important economic partner. Jeenbekov said that the bilateral trade volume between Kyrgyzstan and Turkey was around $356 million, with their eyes set on crossing an ambitious $1 billion one day.

And lastly, one cannot discount the role domestic politics plays in how a state conducts its foreign policy. Jeenbekov’s public split from Atambayev gave the new president an opportunity to at least deal cordially with Erdogan. Jeenbekov may not ultimately bend to Erdogan’s demands, but he hasn’t insulted Turkey outright like Atambayev did. Thus Jeenbekov operates from a stronger position vis-a-vis Turkey than Atambayev had.

For now, Jeenbekov is maintaining the balance: refraining from antagonizing Turkey by rebuffing its insinuations of a pending Gulen-sparked coup while also not antagonizing domestic supporters of the Gulen schools by leaving them open. How far is Turkey willing to go to tip Jeenbekov into action along Ankara’s desired path and how strongly is Jeenbekov willing to resist Turkish pressure?

another article 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kyrgyzstan-turkey-gulen/erdogan-urges-kyrgyzstan-to-shut-down-gulen-network-idUSKCN1LH3Q2

2 Gulen Movement members abducted from Azerbaijan and Ukraine

bringing the total to 82 (that we know of)  from over 71 countries, soon they will circle in on the USA operation and no American official will help them. 

https://turkeypurge.com/turkish-intelligence-agency-catches-2-more-gulen-followers-abroad-returns-them-to-turkey

Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) has abducted two overseas followers of the Gulen movement and forced them back to Turkey in the latest of such forced returns by the organization.

“MIT caught abroad another two terrorists with outstanding arrest warrants, as part of its operations under the fight against FETO,” state-run Anadolu news agency said Thursday.

The detainees were identified as Isa Ozdemir and Salih Zeki Yigit who were forced back in a private jet, operated by MIT, from Azerbaijan and Ukraine, respectively. The pair are accused of membership to the Gulen movement which the government calls FETO.

Media reported Wednesday that a Baku court had, earlier in the day, turned down Turkey’s request for Ozdemir’s deportation and the man was released from the detention center.

Turkish president Erdoğan accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016 while the latter denies involvement.

More than 150,000 people have been detained and 90,000 were remanded in prison over Gulen links in Turkey since the summer of 2016. Meanwhile, Erdogan called on foreign governments to punish Gulenists in their own countries.

So far, a number of countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia and Myanmar handed over academics, businessmen and school principals upon the Turkish government’s request despite the fact that some of those victims already had refugee status with the United Nations.

According to Turkish government’s narrative, MIT conducts such operations by itself in some countries and brings the suspects back without involvement of any other foreign law enforcement.

TURKEY ABDUCTS SIX OF ITS CITIZENS FROM KOSOVO!

EXCELLENT article by Serbian Journalist TV host 

Nemanja Starovic, translated via Google translate

http://www.pecat.co.rs/2018/04/kako-je-gulen-posvadjao-ankaru-i-pristinu/

Mysterious deportations of Key Gulenists worldwide: Finland, Malaysia, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Finland, Iraq, Myanmar....more #Hizmet

Gulen members like to refer to key Gulen members as "Kidnappings" "Deportations" but the truth is, the host countries where they are living and robbing from are arresting them, and in a few cases the Gulenists are fleeing and missing. 
This blog has documented these odd disappearances, being a member of Gulen Movement is a casualty.  The smart members of Hizmet are fleeing with as much cash as they can, before they are arrested in their host country.  There is more that we don't know this is just the tip of the iceberg
Latest Article from Hizmet paper:

http://hizmetnews.com/23892/mysterious-deportations-turkish-teachers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HizmetNews+%28Hizmet+News%29#.Wn_2F6inGM8

An unexpected flurry of activity took place inside a house in Lahore’s Wapda Town on September 27, 2017. At the unearthly hour of 2:25 am, about 12 men in plain clothes barged in, got hold of the people living inside, covered their heads, bundled them into a car and sped away. Those abducted included Mesut Kacmaz, a Turkish citizen living and working in Pakistan as a director at the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, his wife and two children.

When his fellow director Orhan Agyun got the news, he immediately contacted his friends in the neighbourhood. Soon he filed a petition at the Lahore High Court for the recovery of the Kacmaz family through AGHS Law Associates, a Lahore-based firm headed by Asma Jahangir that specialises in human rights cases. The petition stated that those taken away feared being deported to Turkey where they might face imprisonment and persecution. It also said that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had duly registered Kacmaz and his family as asylum seekers who, after leaving Pakistan, did not want to go back to Turkey but to a destination where they could be safe. The registration had qualified them, under various earlier court orders, to stay in Pakistan till October 2017, the petition added.

On October 6, the court ordered that the family could not be deported. Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza, who heard the petition, told the federal interior ministry to put their names on the Exit Control List and find out who had abducted them. On October 14, Kacmaz’s colleagues informed AGHS Law Associates that he and his family had already reached Turkey. He is lodged in a jail there along with his wife, says Usama Malik, a lawyer representing him and his family. Their children are staying with their grandparents, he says.

Justice Mirza was furious when he was informed about it. On October 17, he sought an explanation from the interior ministry as to how Kacmaz and his family had been made to leave Pakistan in spite of his orders against their deportation. The ministry told the judge that it had no record of their departure from airports in Lahore and Islamabad.

Asim Khan Qaimkhani, additional director of immigration at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, also verifies that no Turkish family was forcibly deported from Karachi either. Otherwise, he says, his department would have been notified. “If they left, they left willingly.”

The mystery of the family’s departure deepened as reports started circulating that Turkish police came to Pakistan and took them back on a chartered plane. When the court came to know about these reports, it ordered the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority to find out when and from where the chartered plane had flown them out of Pakistan. The authority later said it had no knowledge or record of the arrival and departure of such a plane.

Four middle-aged Turkish men sit in a newspaper office in Lahore in the middle of December 2017. They are visibly tired and worried — and reluctant to divulge their names. Two of them have received 10-year visas for the United States and have plans to leave Pakistan soon. The other two – and 12 more people like them – cannot even apply for a foreign visa since their passports have expired and there is no way that they can get them renewed by Turkish authorities.

They will have to find a way to stay in Pakistan until their applications for asylum to countries in Europe or North America are accepted. They are willing to try any options to get out of Pakistan — whether it is through the United Nations or through human smugglers. “That is how distressed we are,” says one of them. They are also bitter about how they are being treated. “The [previous] president of Turkey – Abdullah GÜL – visited our schools. Now we are considered terrorists,” says another.

He finds it worrisome that no voices have been raised by political parties in Pakistan over their mistreatment, even when they see Pakistan as their second home. One elaborates, “One of my kids was born in Quetta and the other in Lahore. They are Pakistani you can say. My kids ask me, ‘Why are Pakistanis … forcing us to leave our home?’” All four let out nervous laughter when asked if they expect any change in the attitude of the Pakistani government towards them. “The Turkish government has given so much to Pakistan. I don’t think politicians, even the opposition, would risk that. Why would they care about a few teachers?”

Trouble for the PakTurk schools and colleges and their Turkish teachers and managerial staff started after an alleged coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed in July 2016. The coup was said to be backed and orchestrated by Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish preacher living in the United States where he heads a foundation called Hizmet (service). It owns and operates media organisations, educational institutions and non-profit associations both in Turkey and among Turkish migrants in other countries. Turkish authorities in Ankara allege that the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges are also a part of Gülen’s network. They, therefore, wanted Pakistani authorities to close down these educational institutions and deport their Turkish staff.

Around 110 Turkish teachers, residing in Pakistan with their families, consequently received no positive response from Pakistani authorities on their annual visa renewal applications, says Agyun. For the previous 21 years – since 1995 when PakTurk International schools and colleges started operating in Pakistan – they have been getting their visas renewed without much hassle.

The situation became even worse when Erdogan arrived in Islamabad on an official visit on November 16, 2016. The same day, the interior ministry told all Turks working with the PakTurk educational network to leave Pakistan within three days.

To preempt any disruption in academic activities, Agyun and his senior colleagues in the management took some immediate measures. They started replacing Turkish teachers with Pakistani ones and posted an announcement on the website of their organisation: “We feel it imperative to clarify that the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan are a philanthropic and non-political endeavor in the country organised and established for human development, inter alia, in the field of education for the benefit of all Pakistanis … We are deeply concerned by allegations made by a certain section in the social media trying to connect the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan with Mr. Fethullah Gülen or the political movement ascribed to him in wake of the recent unfortunate and reprehensible events in Turkey. We do unequivocally clarify that the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan have no affiliation or connection with any political individual or any movement or organisation, whether political, religious or denominational, nor do we have a financial relationship with any movement.”

Their third step was to move courts to prevent deportations. While the Islamabad High Court dismissed their petition and instead told them to approach the interior ministry for an extension of their visas, the Peshawar High Court halted the deportations through an order on November 23, 2016. Another positive development for them was a verdict by the Islamabad High Court in March 2017 that declared that the state had made no decision to take over educational institutions owned and operated by their organisation.

Turks working with the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, in the meanwhile, were flocking to the offices of the UNHCR in Islamabad. Though Pakistan is not a signatory to the international conventions on refugees and asylum seekers, according to lawyer Malik, it is obliged under international law to refrain from deporting any foreigners living here if they have already registered as asylum seekers with the United Nations.

This certainly did not help Kacmaz and his family.

The main campus for boys run by the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Lahore is situated on Lahore’s Raiwind Road. Built over a decade ago, it has a state-of-the-art building with an indoor Futsal court and an auditorium that can accommodate 500 students. In 2006, General Pervez Musharraf conferred a civilian award on the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, recognising their services to Pakistan.

One early morning in December 2017, the school’s principal, Asif Raja, is running through meetings while tending to a cell phone that is constantly ringing. He is overseeing preparations for a math competition involving over 11,000 students from across Pakistan. “What these [Turkish] teachers brought [here] was quality education and international exposure. They had taught in various countries and were role models for students,” he says. “[Their deportation order] was really shocking for us,” he adds. “We never saw anything controversial or suspicious [about them].”

Local teachers and managers are running the campus now, as they do at all 28 campuses of the PakTurk educational network located in Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Khairpur, Multan, Jamshoro, Hyderabad and Rawalpindi. About 12,000 students are enrolled at these institutions.

At one of them, in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar area, Haseebullah Jogi is conversing in Turkish over the phone in the principal’s office on a mid-December day. A Turkish flag stands to his right and a Pakistani one to his left, along with framed photos, hanging side by side, of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The school’s official motto – “We believe that what is taught with love lasts forever” – is visible everywhere: on promotional brochures, newsletters and other merchandise.

Jogi took over as principal not too long ago. As part of the plan to replace the Turkish staff with locals, he was transferred here in August 2016 from the Khairpur campus where he was working as vice principal. He himself is a 2009 graduate of the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges and has studied physics at Istanbul University on a scholarship. “Nowhere in our school system are we teaching about Fethullah Gülen. He has no connection [to] our schools,” says Jogi.

By early October 2017, most Turkish teachers had left Pakistan. Those who could not were worried, according to Jogi, “because going back [to Turkey] meant they would be imprisoned”. And once in Turkey, they would also find it impossible to apply for asylum elsewhere, explains a human rights lawyer.

In order to avoid being deported, they had moved the Sindh High Court which, on October 3, extended its earlier injunction against their deportation to October 10. It was later extended again to December 5.

Only a couple of families now live in Karachi – and a few more in other cities – but they are also planning to leave. They have little choice, according to Jogi. “They have lost their livelihood in Pakistan … because their visas have expired.”

What country will be next? Which Gulenist will flee and end up MIA?  

Turkey taking over FETO Schools in Africa

Turkey has continued to pile up pressure on countries around the world to shut down or hand over control of schools linked to Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO). The US-based 76-year-old cleric, Fethullah Gulen was accused of masterminding the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey that left 250 people dead and 2,200 injured. Also, the influential cleric runs FETO and has built a financial empire in Turkey that included banks, media, construction companies and schools. He is reported to have 3 million to 6 million followers in Turkey, including high-ranking government and military officials. The schools began expanding internationally in 1993, and at one point there were Gulen-linked schools, cultural centers or language programs in more than 100 countries. In the United States, it’s the largest group of so-called charter schools, which receive tax funds. It has about 140 schools in 28 states, taking in more than $2.1 billion from taxpayers. In Africa, FETO has a lot of schools and other investments worth billions US dollars. In Nigeria, a document released by the Turkish embassy, listed the indicted schools and institutions as Surat Educational Limited, Abuja; Nigerian-Turkish International School, in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Yobe, Ogun and Lagos; and the Nigerian-Turkish Nile University, Abuja. Others, according to the embassy, are The Association of Businessmen and Investors of Nigeria and Turkey/Abinat, Abuja and Lagos; Ufuk Dialogue Foundation, Abuja; Nigerian-Turkish Nizamiye Hospital, Abuja; and Vefa Travel Agency, Abuja. 

Recently, President of Turkey, Recep Erdogan, advised parents in Nigeria and other countries in Africa to withdraw their children from Turkish-run schools across the continent because the schools are run by those he described as terrorists. In an exclusive interview with AllAfrica.com prior to his three-country official visit to Sudan, Chad and Tunisia, Mr. Erdogan said the schools are run by an organisation that uses education as a façade to hide their real intent. According to him, the schools are linked to United States based Cleric, Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Mr Erdogan turn arch-rival. Erdogan said “Without any further ado, I will like to mention something. Whether your nephews, nieces and your children, do not send them to either one of these network schools. “Education is just a disguise for the terrorists working for these organisations, even religion is a disguise for the Fethullahists. In the Quran, Allah condemned those who are using prayers as disguised as they will never be conscientious to the practice of prayer that is why we would remain alert. We would never be manipulated. The coup plotters are the Fethullahists. “They have all been identified and some of them have been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. These Fethullahists came to kill me and my family members but Allah protected us and in a matter of minutes we were saved from their bombs, their attacks but two of my security guarded were killed… there are 29 martyrs around the presidential complex which was attacked that night as well. “We are warning all our brothers in Africa not to be deceived because the Fethullahists have great sums of money out of their actions. In 1999, the Chief terrorist, fled to the United States to live in Pennsylvania. We have demanded his extradition immediately. “The Turkish government has established an education foundation to take control of the schools linked with Mr. Gulen. Many African countries, including Nigeria have, however, turned down Mr. Erdogan’s requests to either take control or close schools linked to Mr Gulen. “Soon after the attempted coup, the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil, called on the Nigerian government to close 17 Turkish schools. His request was however turned down by the government.” However, a Turkish state-run education foundation has taken over control of schools in Chad that once belonged to FETO. Turkey’s Maarif Foundation (TMF) took over the institutions in line with a protocol signed between the Turkish and Chadian governments recently. Among these institutions are a kindergarten, a primary school, two secondary schools, two high schools, and a dormitory. The institutions will continue operating with administrators and teachers sent by Maarif. President Erdogan said in Ankara that Turkey was determined to clear Africa of FETO, saying that FETO fooled people through “sham” education and aid services. 

The Maarif Foundation has recently assumed control of numerous schools previously run by FETO around the world, including 32 in Africa, according to Turkey’s National Education Ministry. Also, TMF is working round the clock to be in charge of schools once run by FETO in Nigeria, as it visited the country last year to establish its presence. A member of the Board of Trustees of the Turkish Maarif Foundation and Special Adviser to Turkish Prime Minister, Prof. Cahit Bagci, said that TMF is a not-for-profit public body constitutionally authorized to run schools outside Turkey, adding that their visit was to ensure robust relations on education with Nigeria. Meanwhile, irate President Erdogan said that Turkey would not extradite any suspects to the United States if Washington doesn’t hand over Fethullah Gulen, who allegedly orchestrated a failed 2016 military coup. Ankara accuses U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the putsch and has repeatedly asked Washington for his extradition. But US officials have said courts require sufficient evidence to extradite the elderly cleric, who has denied any involvement in the coup. “We have given the United States 12 terrorists so far, but they have not given us back the one we want. They made up excuses from thin air,” Erdogan told local administrators at a conference in his presidential palace in Ankara. “If you’re not giving him [Gulen] to us, then excuse us, but from now on whenever you ask us for another terrorist, as long as I am in office, you will not get them,” he said. Gulen, 76, lives in rural Pennsylvania. The influential Sunni Muslim cleric fled Turkey for the U.S. in 1999 and was subsequently granted permanent resident status. Turkey is the biggest Muslim majority country in NATO and an important U.S. ally in the Middle East. But Ankara and Washington have been at loggerheads over a wide range of issues in recent months, including a U.S. alliance with Kurdish fighters in Syria and the conviction of a Turkish bank executive in a U.S. sanctions-busting case that included testimony of corruption by senior Turkish officials. 

Read More at: https://leadership.ng/2018/01/13/turkey-taking-feto-schools-africa/