Pakistani Govt deports abducted Turkish teacher and family despite UN protections


Date posted: October 15, 2017

Urooj Fatima

  • Kacmaz family was blindfolded and boarded on an unmarked flight from Islamabad to Istanbul
  • Lahore High Court had asked Interior Ministry to locate and release the family and not deport them until further notice
  • The Turkish family was scheduled to appear before Lahore High Court on Monday

The abducted Turkish teacher Mesut Kacmaz and his family were reportedly deported by Pakistani government to Turkey on early Saturday.

The Turk family was scheduled to appear before court on Monday. Mr. Kacmaz and his family were abducted from their home at midnight in Lahore on September 27. Pakistan’s top court, on 6th October, had ordered Interior Ministry to locate and release the Turk Family. The family was under protection of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

According to the friends and colleagues of Mesut Kacmaz, he and his family were deported to Turkey on Saturday, blindfolded and via an unmarked flight from Islamabad to Istanbul. Mr. Kacmaz and his wife Meral Kacmaz were reportedly transferred to Ankara for interrogation while their teenage daughters are reportedly staying with a relative in Istanbul.

 

Kacmaz family’s friends stated,  “We are in utter shock as we have just learnt that Mr. Mesut Kaçmaz and his family were deported to Turkey on October 14, 2017. He and his wife Meral Kaçmaz were moved to Ankara for interrogation. They were blindfolded and boarded on an unmarked flight from Islamabad for İstanbul in the morning. As confirmed by Meral Kaçmaz’s parents and the daughters, the teenaged daughters are not detained and are reported to be staying with a relative in İstanbul.”

They called this action “a blatant violation of the family members’ UNHCR protection”. The Kacmaz family’s UNHCR protection was till November 25, 2017, however, the most recent certificate extended the protection until October 13, 2018. Also, Lahore High Court had ruled out deportation of Kamcaz family or any-other Turkish teacher, on 6th October, 2017.

“What power may bypass the rule of law in Pakistan and ‘deport’ them stealthily to Turkey?”, Concerned friends of the family asked, “It is reported that their names are not found on any flight manifest bound for İstanbul on Saturday.”

The four members of the Kaçmaz Family have been under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and were abducted from their house in Wapda Town, Lahore along with another Turkish friend, Fatih Avci, who was released shortly afterwards.

Mesut Kacmaz, a graduate from the Department of Urdu Language and Literature in Konya’s Selcuk University in Turkey, has been working for education and cultural activities in Pakistan since 2007. His wife, Meral Kacmaz is a teacher like himself. The Kacmaz family has been living in Pakistan for over ten years.

The former director Mesut Kaçmaz worked as the principal of the Pak-Turk Clifton Boys School. The school has so far, passed out hundreds of graduates and represented the country successfully by receiving medals at international science Olympiads. In 2008, the New York Times gave coverage to the constructive role of the PakTurk schools and their achievements by quoting Mr. Kaçmaz.

The troubles for Turkish families residing in Pakistan began in after the Gullen-Erdogan controversy. Erdogan asked Pakistani Government to close all the cultural and educational activities being conducted by Gullen’s institute and deport the associated Turkish workers.

In November 2016, the Pakistani government, under pressure, did not extend the visas of Turkish teachers and their families and ordered them to leave the country within three days. Teachers moved to courts and objected the decision. They also applied to the UNHCR and were issued asylum seeker certificates placing them under the UN protection.

 

Source: Daily Pakistan , October 15, 2017


Related News

Exiled cleric Gulen explains why he thinks Erdogan has branded him a terrorist

Gulen claimed that [Erdogan turn against Hizmet and accuse it of plotting the failed coup] because he had refused Erdogan’s appeal to use the domestic and international Hizmet network as a propaganda tool to present himself as leader of Islam, at home and abroad. “But Hizmet rejected him and so Erdogan was angry,” Gulen said.

Pak-Turk schools: Parents urge government against transferring administration to Erdogan-linked organization

“All the Turkish teachers and administrators have left Pakistan and the schools are being run by Pakistanis,” said one of the parents Syed Amir Abdullah. He added that the government still seemed hell bent on ruining these institutions by handing them over to an ‘infamous organisation’ which has no experience of running them.

Fethullah Gülen urges followers to stick to path despite attacks

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen called on his followers on Monday to “just keep walking and not stop” in the face of controversial government plans to abolish privately-funded educational institutions known as dershanes, which assist medium and high school students to prepare for national college and university admission examinations.

They busted the house of a deceased teacher to take her under custody

Parents of Didem took a grief-stricken breath when they saw the police squad holding custody document which is written Didem’s name on it and they said “If you want to take her under custody you should go to cemetery. Didem is dead, my son.”

What is wrong with independent journalism?

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç called on prosecutors to take legal action on Monday against the Taraf daily and journalist Mehmet Baransu, who revealed a controversial National Security Council (MGK) document last week, signed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2004, which detailed a planned crackdown on the Hizmet (Gülen) movement.

Ottawa urged to expedite residency process for those fleeing oppression in Turkey

Human rights advocate Renée Vaugeois wrote a letter asking Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen to expedite the Edmonton man’s residency application. She thinks that this is a targeted war on a specific group of people in Turkey and to her that speaks to genocide.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

D.C.-based law firm gathers intel on U.S. residents for Turkey – WSJ

Mavi Marmara and Gülen’s critics: politics and principles

In Greece, Turks tell of lives full of fear in Recep Erdogan’s Turkey

Gülen: Burden of proof rests with those who claim we plotted the coup

Troubled Nigeria discusses Gülen’s ‘culture of coexistence’

Gülen calls for peaceful coexistence, warns about deceit and oppression

Turkish expats in Singapore concerned over state of emergency back home

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News