Afghan Students, families baulk at Turkey taking over schools


Date posted: April 22, 2017

Mirabed Joyenda

A number of parents of students at Afghan-Turk Schools on Saturday said at a meeting in Kabul they support the continuation of the schools in the country and do not want control to be handed over to the Turkish government.

The Afghan-Turk Schools students also wrote a letter to Afghan and Turkish government leaders and said they do not want the schools to be handed over to the Turkish government.

“Recently we have been very sad because we have been accused of being terrorists. Our schools, for no reason, are being handed over to someone else,” said one student, Gulbahar.

The management of Afghan-Turk Schools also said the schools will continue to operate as usual.

Three months have passed since classes started at our schools. We launched the project that was planned last year for Khost province. We continue our services as regular and free of issues around a handover,” said Ahmad Fawad Haidari, the deputy director of Afghan-Turk Schools.


A number of parents of students at Afghan-Turk Schools on Saturday said at a meeting in Kabul they support the continuation of the schools in the country and do not want control to be handed over to the Turkish government.


Ahmad Neman, a student at an Afghan-Turk school, joined the school two years ago and is in grade eight.

Neman’s father said handing over the schools to the Turkish government will have a negative impact and the move would not be a positive change for students.

“Let’s simply ignore terrorism. We want schools and we are against terrorism. No one wants his children to become a terrorist,” Abdullah Dawi, Neman’s father said.

“99 percent of the students do not want the school to be handed over,” said Neman.

Currently between 7,000 and 8,000 students are studying at Afghan-Turk Schools in Kabul, Balkh, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Herat and Jawzjan provinces.


The Afghan-Turk Schools students also wrote a letter to Afghan and Turkish government leaders and said they do not want the schools to be handed over to the Turkish government. “Recently we have been very sad because we have been accused of being terrorists. Our schools, for no reason, are being handed over to someone else,” said one student, Gulbahar.


Thousands of students have graduated from these schools over the years.

In February, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani agreed to hand over the Afghan-Turk Schools, previously run by a pro-Gulen institution, to the Turkish Education Foundation [Maarif Foundation] which is a government institution.

This step was not welcomed by the affected schools.

Afghan-Turk Schools were supported by Fethullah Gulen, head of Gulen movement. After the failed military coup in Turkey last year, tensions between President Rajab Tayeb Erdogan and Gulen increased. Erdogan ordered all countries to handover the schools to the Turkish government.

Afghan-Turk Schools has been active in Afghanistan for 20 years.

 

Source: Tolo News , April 22, 2017


Related News

Gülen: Associating Hizmet with violent Kobani protests great slander

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has said the attempts to depict the Hizmet movement as being linked to the recent violent protests across Turkey, triggered by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) siege of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, is a great slander, emphasizing that the movement has never been involved in any form of violence.

Hizmet rejects claims it is linked to graft probe, says democracy is antidote to chaos

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has categorically rejected accusations that it is linked to the corruption and bribery investigation that has rocked Turkey for nearly a month, urging everyone to avoid language that only deepens the “dangerous polarization” in the country.

Turkey’s Internet watchdog blocks access to website broadcasting Gülen’s speeches

Turkey’s state-controlled Internet watchdog, the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB), has blocked access to herkul.org, a website that regularly broadcasts speeches by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Turkish school extended help to Turks after earthquake in Nepal

Turkish tourists who were on a vacation in Nepal during a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Kathmandu on Saturday stated that Turkish school in the country used every means available to help them and other earthquake victims.

Turkish schools praised by Uganda’s education minister

Ugandan Education Minister Jessica Alupo commented on the success of Galaxy International Schools in Uganda during a recent trip to Turkey. Alupo stressed that the five Galaxy International Schools, which were opened by Turkish entrepreneurs and operate across Uganda with nearly 1,500 students, encourage pupils to grow as individuals.

86-year-old man in 11th month of his arrest on coup charges

Ali Osman Karahan, an 86-year-old Turkish man with walking and speaking difficulties has been kept in an Isparta prison for almost 12 months over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, which Turkish authorities accuse of being behind a failed coup attempt in July of last year.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

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

In Case You Missed It

Fethullah Gülen urges followers to stick to path despite attacks

Man dies of heart attack while on way to help Turkish refugees in Greece

Turkish Olympiad raises hopes for world peace

Australian Relief Organisation feed thousand in Philippines and Sri Lanka in Qurban

Columnist sees Gülen ‘conspiracy’ in ruling against Israel

Turkish PM acknowledges phone call to media executive

No return from democracy, Zaman editor Dumanlı says under detention

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News