The reactions against the abduction
of three Turkish teachers, one Afghan teacher and one Turkish
businessman who work at the Turkish Schools belonging to Afghan-Turkish
Çağ Educational Foundation (ATCE) in Afghanistan are increasing.
While the Afghan media has been giving the developments with breaking
news and the parents of students studying at the Çağ Schools stood
up, it was claimed that the Turkish government under the rule of
autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently turned its
pressures to blackmailing and began to threaten the Afghan state.
However, despite all the pressures of the Erdoğan regime, it is said
that the Afghan people and the Kabul government have embraced these
schools so far.
According
to information given by sources, demanded to be anonymous, Erdoğan’s
regime has threatened Afghanistan government with further
destabilisation in the country and support for the opposition against
the government. Moreover, it was also stated that Afghanistan has been
pressurised by Turkish government by saying that “We will not give visas
to any of Afghan businessmen. Along with that we will be in favor of
Pakistan in the conflict between you and Pakistan.”
It is also stated that Erdoğan regime has put Afghanistan’s former
Vice President General Rashid Dostum as another trump card on the table.
General Dostum, who had a number of accusations in Afghanistan
including torture and harassment, had fled to Turkey in May 2017. Dostum
is of Uzbek descend and being protected by Turkey. According to the
allegations, the Afghan government forced Dostum to exile. In this
context, in return of the closure of Turkish schools and deportation of
Turkish teachers President Erdoğan gave a guarantee to Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani that he would ensure Dostum not to be sent back to
Afghanistan ever.
Meanwhile, the parents of students, who have reacted very harshly to
the Afghan government’s move, are expected to say that “We grant 48
hours to the government for the return of our teachers. Otherwise, we
will do intensive protests,” by organizing a press conference on
Thursday.
In the meantime, it was learned that four of the five people who were kidnapped were under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
and therefore the UNHCR wrote a letter to the Afghan Foreign Ministry
and warned that these people should not be deported to Turkey.
The vehicle of Turkish teachers; Önder Akkuşci, Yunus Demirci, Yılmaz
Aytan and an Afghan based teacher Mesut Vardak, who came out of their
homes to go to the school on Tuesday morning, were stopped on the
street. The teachers, who were surrounded by the Afghan intelligence
service National Directorate of Security (NDS), were detained and taken
to a building belonging to the NDS.
It was also reported that Yılmaz Aytan and Mesut Vardak were members
of the Board of Directors in the Afghan-Turkish Çağ Educational NGO
(ATCE) owning all the Turkish Schools.
At the same time, the vehicle of Turkish businessman Sami Yavuz, who
came out of his home to go to his restaurant in Kabul, was also stopped
and surrounded by NDS officials. Yavuz was detained and taken to the
same place as the other four educators.
The ATCE officials, who had been informed 2 hours after the
abduction, called the Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry in order to get
information. Ministry officials said that “The incident has no relations
with us. The intelligence is the responsible for that.”
In the evening of the same day, the girls’ high school affiliated to
the Çağ Schools in Kabul was raided by NDS. Intelligence officers, who
wanted to detain the teacher Fatih Çakmakçı, asked to search the girl’s
dormitory. This initiative caused harsh reaction of the students and
parents. The Parents’ Committee showed a strict resistance with its 24
members.
According to the information received by Stockholm Center for Freedom
(SCF), it is accepted as an unforgivable attempt in Afghan culture to
raid the school building where girls’ dorm also located in the same
campus at midnight.
The parents who flocked to the school and did not deliver the teacher
to the intelligence officers who came for detention, and took him under
their protection. The NDS staff had to leave the building without
making any detention. These moments were also broadcast by the Afghan
media.
On the other hand, the people who were taken into custody were said
that “We have a complaint about you. There is a court decision in your
country, Turkey,” without showing any official document and written
justification. It is also noted that no crime has been committed by
detainees in Afghanistan. Underlining the fact that there is no treaty
of ‘extradition of criminals’ between Turkey and Afghanistan, it is
emphasized that the abductions are totally unlawful.
While the spouses and children of the abductees were taken under
protection by the ATCE, it was learned that the detainees’ family
members could talk to their husbands under custody on the phone.
In the meantime, while the education is not developed enough, the Çağ
Schools are regarded as the pupil of Afghanistan’s eye. It is stated in
Afghanistan, where does not have schools almost half of its
territory, that Çağ Schools have provided education in international
standard with 8 thousand students. It was reported that 3 thousand of
these students are female. There are 120 teachers serving in the
schools.
Afghan Turk International School are the members of a chain of
Turkish educational institutions established in 1995 and running under
the auspices of Afghan Turk International Çag Educational Foundation for
pursuit of excellence in education in Afghanistan. Annually Afghan Turk High Schools graduate their students get the highest ranks in Afghanistan and over the world. In
January 2014, Afghan Education Minister Ghulam Farooq Wardak said that
he would like Turkey to increase the number of Turkish-Afghan schools in
Afghanistan, opening a school in each province as an education role
model.
Following a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the Turkish
government under the rule of Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan asked Kabul to close the schools and hand over the teachers of
these schools to the government of Turkey.
A report by TOLO News basing on a probe has found documents that
indicate the Ministry of Education (MoE) is trying to take control of
the independent Afghan-Turk Schools at the end of November
2017. According to the documents seen by TOLO News, the MoE wants to
control the education and administrative sectors of the schools.
Meanwhile a number of families of students attending the Afghan-Turk
schools said government is putting pressure on the schools stating it
has a right to control them. The Director General of Monitoring and
Evaluation at the education ministry said in a letter sent to Balkh,
Kandahar, Jawzjan, Herat and Nangarhar education departments that they
need to start monitoring the Afghan-Turk schools in their provinces.
Afghan-Turk schools officials meanwhile had said such monitoring was
unusual and was in violation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
signed between the directorate of Afghan-Turk schools and the education
ministry.
According to the report, Afghan Education Ministry
also reportedly sent another letter to Afghan-Turk schools on November.
In this letter, the ministry said that based on the MoU between
Afghanistan and Turkish governments, the education ministry has a right
to monitor the schools. However, officials at the Afghan-Turk schools
said they are a non-government organization and the MoU was signed
between the organization and education ministry – not between the
governments.
“In article 31 of our MoU with the MoE, it is explained that which
parts can be reviewed and assessed. We have shared our opinions with the
ministry, but so far we have not received anything else in this
regard,” Ahmad Fawad Haidari, deputy director of Afghan-Turk schools
said. The MoU was signed on 2011 and is valid for 49 years.
The witch hunt launched in 2013 in Turkey targeting the alleged
followers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a massive corruption and
bribery scandal of Turkish government ministers and their family members
on December 17-25, 2013 has even affected Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Erdoğan put the pressure on the Afghan government to close the
educational and cultural institutions alleged to be affiliated with the
movement and to deport the Turkish citizens working in these
institutions.
Previously Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia and Myanmar
handed over academics, businessmen and school principals, teachers upon
the Turkish government’s request even though some of those victims
already had refugee status with the UN like Mesut Kaçmaz and his family in Pakistan.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt
on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch,
the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President
Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in
the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it,
but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and
the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing
sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions,
dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers,
police and civil servants since July 15. Turkey’s Interior Minister
announced on December 12, 2017 that 55,665 people have been arrested.
Previously, on December 13, 2017, The Justice Ministry announced that
169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup
charges since the failed coup.stockholmcf.org
