Moldova Rights Activists Target Erdogan at Football Match


Date posted: September 12, 2019

Madalin Necsutu

Moldovan rights activists used a football match with Turkey on Tuesday to stage a brief protest against the highly controversial extradition to Turkey in 2018 of seven teachers.

Human rights activists from the “Occupy Guguta” movement in Moldova unveiled a banner on Tuesday night at the national football match between Moldova and Turkey, with a critical message for the authoritarian Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The activists at the Zimbru Stadium in Chisinau urged Erdogan to release seven Turkish teachers working in Moldova who were taken back to Turkey by force in September 2018 in a joint operation of the Moldovan and Turkish secret services.

“Erdogan, give us back our professors!” the activists wrote on their banner.

The seven teachers belonged to the private Orizont chain of high schools in Moldova, which are affiliated to the Hizmet movement of the exiled Turkish cleric and Erdogan foe Fetthulah Gulen – who Erdogan blames for a failed coup in 2016. Gulen, who lives in the US, has denied all connection with the affair.

The Turkish citizens were seized in an alleged deal between Erdogan and the pro-Russian President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, and the Moldovan oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who then de facto ran the ruling Democratic Party-led government in Moldova.

====== RELATED NEWS ======

Extradition of Turkish Citizens: Moldova to pay 125,000 euros in damages for rights violations

==========================

Andrei Lutenco, an activist with Occupy Guguta movement, told BIRN that the banner was posted for about ten minutes until the private security at the stadium came and forced them to take it down.

“They did not invoke any reason, they just came and said take it down. They didn’t explain why. At one point they ripped it [banner] from out of my hands. The security became a little violent and strong-armed my colleague, though it was not so serious,” he said.

Lutenco added that his colleague had filed a complaint to the police about the incident.

“I hope the message will get to the Turkish press also because we can do nothing here for those teachers, but those there can save their lives and return them to their families,” another activist, Ion Andronache, said on Facebook.

A deputy from the governing pro-Western ACUM bloc, which is in coalition with the Socialists, Dumitru Alaiba, said freedom of speech should be respected in Moldova.

“The message on the banner may or may not be liked. The regulations may be different. The problem resides in how to act in respect of the right of people to express themselves freely in a free country,” he said on Facebook.

The present Moldovan parliament is now investigating the suspicious case conducted last year by former Moldovan officials together with the Moldovan Security and Intelligence Service SIS.

The General Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday said the former deputy director of the SIS, Alexandru Baltaga, detained at the end of last week over the expulsion case, would remain for the next 30 days under house arrest.

Olga Poalelungi, head of the Bureau of Migration and Asylum in Moldova, has also been charged with overstepping her official duties, with serious consequences.

Source: Balkan Insight , September 11, 2019


Related News

Turkish Schools in Africa

Taha AKYOL May 2, 2012 The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world. In its capital Bangui, even electricity is not stable! We’ve arrived in Bangui during the night. Roads were terrible. We got to our hotel at midnight but even though our rooms were at the 11th floor, the […]

Ishak Alaton praises Turkish schools abroad

HARUN İLHAN-KEVSER KULAKSIZ, İSTANBUL İshak Alaton, one of the most respected businesspeople in Turkey, praised Turkish schools abroad during one of his book talks in İstanbul on Thursday on an event, organized by the Florya Businessmen’s Association and Horizon Dialogue Association. The event hosted Alaton and Mehmet Gündem, the author of Alaton’s biography, “İshak Alaton: […]

Body of Turkish woman fleeing to Greece found weeks after boat capsized

Turkish authorities have found the body of Aslı Doğan, a Turkish woman who went missing after a refugee boat carrying eight people capsized in the river that marks the border of Turkey and Greece on Feb. 13, 2018.

Purge-victim businessman sent back to prison a week after stomach cancer surgery: son

Hacı Boydak, a Kayseri-based Turkish businessman, has been put in solitary confinement only one week after he underwent a cancer surgery, according to his son.

Former Pakistani PM expresses gratitude for Turkish schools

Underlining that Pakistan’s major problems result from a lack of adequate education, the former prime minister noted that the developed education system at Pakistan’s 23 Turkish schools could play a significant role in solving those problems in the country.

Understanding shifts in Islamic interpretation in Turkey through Gulen-inspired Yamanlar High School

Erdogan regime has transformed most of the seized schools into religious vocational high schools, where teachers mostly teach Salafi beliefs. The Gülen Movement’s first school Yamanlar College was one of them.

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

Erdoğan’s allegations proven to be incorrect, contradictory over time

Erdogan in East Africa to fight against Gulen

Turkey Should Protect All Prisoners from Pandemic

A Shared Struggle: Muslim and Jewish fasters break it together

Parents seeking urgent Release of School Principle Fatih Keskin

Local, foreign participants debate Turkish democracy at Abant platform

Turkish Olympiads close with perfect ceremony

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News