Romania denies extradition request for Turkish teacher over Gülen links


Date posted: December 20, 2019

A Romanian judge on Wednesday rejected a Turkish request for the extradition of a 24-year-old teacher arrested by police and sought by the authorities in Ankara over links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the Balkan Insight (BIRN) news website reported.

Büşra Zeynep Şen, an English teacher affiliated with the movement of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, appeared before the appeals court judge soon after her detention.

“I felt and I still feel safe in Romania, that’s why I’m very grateful to Romanian authorities for refusing to send me back to Turkey,” said a visibly emotional Şen in a voice message to BIRN after learning the court verdict.

She denied that she had ever supported terrorism and accused the authorities in her home country of wanting her extradited in order to “torture her and put her in jail.”

The woman has a legal right to be in Romania and teaches at the International Computer High School in Bucharest, which is run by supporters of the exiled cleric.

Tens of thousands of people have been sacked from their jobs and imprisoned in Turkey over their connections with the movement inspired by the US-based cleric since a failed 2016 military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Erdoğan has blamed Gülen for the coup, which he has denied.

Turkish authorities have actively pursued members of the movement abroad, many of whom run schools and welfare projects in dozens of countries around the world.

This pursuit has been particularly intense in the Balkan region. In Moldova, at Ankara’s request, the local authorities in March of last year briefly detained Turgay Şen, the father of the teacher arrested in Romania.

Şen was director of a Gülen-linked network of schools in Moldova. He ended up fleeing to Kosovo, where he has since become a citizen. Meanwhile, several alleged Gülenists have been sent back from Kosovo to Turkey in recent years.

Gülen supporters and human rights activists accuse Erdoğan of conducting an unprecedented witch-hunt against them. Turkey is also charged with exerting pressure on foreign governments to extradite alleged Gülen followers.

Source: Turkish Minute , December 18, 2019


Related News

Pakistan – Of friends and us

A student at the Pak-Turk School in Lahore was perplexed at the abrupt deportation of all Turkish teachers at the request of the Turkish President Erdogan. “The Pak-Turk School changed my outlook in life. The teachers were more than simply teachers, they were mentors and helped students in all aspects of life,” this student exclaimed. “Why are they kicking out my teachers who have done so much for my country?” he wondered.

Defending Hizmet

I have seen nothing but beauty from the Hizmet movement. I have taught at Hizmet schools in Turkey and seen teachers who work 18 hour long days seven days a week neglecting their own families in order to teach poor villagers in Sanliurfa.

Turkish IT Technician Found Dead While Fleeing To Greece

The body of a Turkish IT specialist, who was fleeing Turkish crackdown, was recovered from a river that divides Turkish-Greek territory. Mr. Zumre is not the only one who tried to cross the Meric river into Greece. Hundreds of professors, journalists, and sacked public employees crossed the river to reach Greece. Many of them are living in Greek refugee camps.

TÜBİTAK scolded for hiding olympiad winners were from Hizmet schools

The president and members of the government have scolded the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) for not revealing that the majority of medal winners at two recent scholastic olympiad events were students from schools affiliated with the Hizmet movement, the Taraf daily reported on Tuesday.

Graduation ceremony of the Turkish school in Senegal

Lancei Keita © Ebrunews, Senegal Every year the Turkish school complex Yavuz Selim organizes a ceremony of delivery of diplomes of its éléves in final year of high school. This year the évenement has corresponded at the fifteenth anniversary of the Turkish school in Senegal. In Senegal since 1997, the group Yavuz Sélim says itself Relieved […]

JWF organized a side-event at UN in Geneva

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF), in partnership with Dialog-Institut and the Permanent Missions of Afghanistan, Finland and the UK, put its signature to another successfully organized conference on Wednesday June 11th in the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland.

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

From republic to al-mukhabarat state

What’s Friendship Got to Do With [Mr. Gulen’s] Extradition?

Erdogan set up Maarif Foundation to seize Hizmet-inspired Turkish Schools

Trip to Turkey leaves a lasting impression

Arbil closer to İstanbul than Baghdad

Wife says dismissed police chief left to die of colorectal cancer in İzmir prison

Malian first lady commends local Turkish schools

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News