Kosovo PM Haradinaj: Deportation of Turkish citizens was hasty

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj being questioned by the Parliamentary Commission for the deportation of six Turkish citizens. Photo: Kallxo.com.
Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj being questioned by the Parliamentary Commission for the deportation of six Turkish citizens. Photo: Kallxo.com.


Date posted: December 8, 2018

Following an invitation by the Parliamentary Commission for Investigating the Deportation of Six Turkish Citizens in March 2018, Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said that the action was “hasty and surprising,” and that it could have been carried out as “a regular process.”

Haradinaj said that the Kosovo Police thought it was doing a “patriotic act” when carrying out orders to deport the Turkish citizens, saying that he could have dismissed former police chief Shpend Maxhuni, but he did not see him as responsible.

“Politically, I could have discharged Maxhuni, as a political act in discretion. Regardless, I was focused on the two individuals in the hierarchy,” Haradinaj said, referring to the dismissal of former Interior Minister Flamur Sefaj and former Chief of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, AKI, Driton Gashi shortly after the deportation.

A few months after the dismissal of Gashi, Maxhuni was appointed as the new chief of AKI.

“The police executed [the act], the police believed it was doing a patriotic and heroic act for the benefit of the country. We cannot go to the police and tell them that it is their fault,” Haradinaj said.

During his report, Haradinaj said that a foreign diplomat, who he was having a meeting with during the events related to the deportations, informed him that the Turkish citizens were removed from the country.

He said that he received the information “around 11:00 or 12:00” in the day of deportation, while the aircraft carrying the Turkish citizens left Prishtina Airport before 11:00 am.

The commission planned to interview President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci as well, but its report was postponed for next week as Thaci is currently on an official trip in the United States of America.

Following the deportations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo issued a press release saying that the five Turkish employees of Mehmet Akif schools in Kosovo were stripped of their residence permits due to reasons of “national security.”

In an interview following the publication of the Ombudsperson report on the forceful removal of six Turkish nationals, Hilmi Jashari, Kosovo Ombudsperson, said that “from the first step to the last moment” the entire process was a violation of legal obligations proscribed in the Kosovo Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights.

The airline company, whose plane carried the six Turkish nationals who were forcefully removed from Kosovo to Turkey in March, misrepresented its flight’s purpose, being labelled as a “commercial flight” according to the Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority.

On March 29, six Turkish nationals were deported from Kosovo to Turkey after a joint operation of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, AKI, and the Kosovo Police. According to the Ministry of Interior, the deportees represented a threat to national security and were deported to their country of citizenship where they face charges for being members of the Fethullah Gulen movement, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

Source: Prishtina Insight , November 30, 2018


Related News

Liberia: Turkish School to Remain Open

The Government of Liberian says the Turkish Light International School System remains a private institution of learning in Liberia and enjoys all the privileges provided all educational institutions operating in the country until it concludes an investigation into allegations that operators of the school here were linked to a failed coup in Turkey.

Panel Discussion – The Gulen Schools In Central Asia

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev rather quickly defused the problem with Turkey by making a visit to Ankara to meet with President Erdogan. Nazarbaev did not agree to close down the Gulen schools in Kazakhstan, but he did promise to carefully scrutinize those running the schools and those teaching in them.

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Erdogan’s government has made Gulenists “the enemy you ascribe to everything that goes poorly in Turkey,” according to Henri Barkey, a fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Woman says she miscarried baby due to stress under police custody

A Turkish woman, whose identity remains anonymous, has said in a recent video recording that she miscarried her baby due to the stress she experienced under custody.

London-Based Turkish Academic To Run 10,000 Meters To Raise Fund For Purge Victims In Turkey

İsmail Sezgin, a London-based Turkish academic has tweeted on Tuesday that he will run a total of 10,000 meters in support of the families hit by an ongoing purge by the Turkish government. Releasing a statement on moneygiving.com, Sezgin said that he aims at raising a fund of 10 thousand pounds to help purge-victim families in Turkey.

Pak-Turk delegation visit Balochistan Chief Minister

Chief Minister of the province Balochistan, Pakistan, Abdul Malik Baloch received a delegation of Pak-Turk Schools’ and several other affiliated institutions’ officials at his residential office.

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

From Islamophobia to ‘Hizmet-phobia’

12 detained for raising funds to help families of jailed Gülen sympathizers

Freedom House says security package undermines democracy in Turkey

Erdogan presses Kyrgyzstan for action against Gulen group

Erdogan targets Hizmet inspired schools on Africa visit

Turkey post-coup purges convulse society

İstanbul woman suffers miscarriage in police custody

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News