Muhammet Furkan Sökmen, a Turkish teacher working for two schools
established by Gülen movement followers in Myanmar, was forcibly
returned to Turkey despite his cries for help on social media.
Sökmen was detained at İstanbul Atatürk Airport and was taken to a
police station for interrogation on Saturday.
Sökmen called for “help from the world” in a video recording he
posted on social media minutes before he was handed over to Turkish
authorities at Yangon International Airport by Myanmar police on Friday.
According to another video he earlier posted on social media, Sökmen,
his wife Ayşe and daughter Sibel were detained by local immigration
officials who told the family that Turkish government had invalidated
their passports.
According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, Sökmen was first forcibly deported to Bangkok, Thailand on May 24.
“They take me to Bangkok. I am at the airport now. If they send me to
Turkey, I will be prisoned and most probably tortured like many other
tortured under the currency regime. …I am asking for international
protection” Sökmen said in another video.
Despite his calls, he was taken back to İstanbul with Turkish police in company, in a Turkish Airlines flight.
An executive at the Horizon International Schools, Sökmen is also a
partner of the Mediterranean International Education Services Co. Ltd,
both based in Myanmar.
HRW CONDEMNS FORCED RETURN BY MYANMAR, THAILAND
In a statement on May 26, Phil Robertson, the Deputy Asia Director of
the Human Rights Watch said: “Both Myanmar and Thailand had the
opportunity to do the right thing and provide this school administrator
with access to #UNHCR so that his serious fears of persecution and
possible torture if returned to Turkey could be examined. To do so would
have been both humane and rights respecting, but both governments took
the apparently cynical view that Turkey can do whatever it wants with
its citizens, even those residing legally in other countries.
“Government leaders in #Yangon and #Bangkok have instead shamelessly
chose to play the role of willing handmaidens to Turkey’s rights abusing
campaign to strip its own citizens of their passports and force them
back to a fate that could include possible torture, long pre-trial
detention, and trials on trumped up charges before courts where
proceedings are likely to be neither free nor fair.
“As a result, Furkan Sökmen will begin Ramadan this year in prison,
separated from his wife and infant daughter, facing an uncertain but
certainly very grim fate.
“His pleas sent in a video to HRW and others around the world from
the Suvarnnaphum airport lock-up, to not be sent back to #Turkey speak
for themselves. His voice stands as an indictment of #Thailand and
#Myanmar’s cynical disparagement of the right of people to refuge and
protection from political persecution.”
TURKEY’S LONG ARM ABROAD
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over
240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. After the putsch,
the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the
Gülen group for the attempt.
President Erdoğan earlier called on foreign governments to punish
Gülenists in their own countries. Only a few countries, including Saudi
Arabia, Malaysia and Georgia, seem to have complied with the request so
far.
Turkey has already detained more than 120,000 people over their
alleged or real ties to the movement at home before spreading its
crackdown to overseas.
Meanwhile, NBA star Enes Kanter was denied entry to Romania upon a
request from the Turkish government, according to a tweet posted by the
Turkish basketball player on May 20.
An outspoken movement supporter, Kanter later told media that the
Turkish government also had tried to catch him in Indonesia.
(turkeypurge.com) May 28, 2017
