Alliance for Shared Values Statement on Detention of Turkish Nationals in Kosovo and Their Imminent Transfer to Turkey


Date posted: March 29, 2018

March 29, 2018 – The Alliance for Shared Values denounces the detention of six Turkish nationals in Kosovo on Thursday morning as a result of demands from the Turkish government. This is the latest incident in which the Recep Tayyip Erdogan regime has targeted innocent individuals solely based on affiliation with the Hizmet movement.

The Turkish nationals who were detained are Mustafa Erdem, Yusuf Karabina, Kahraman Demirez, Cihan Ozkan, Hasan Huseyin Gunakan, and Prof. Osman Karakaya. These individuals have legal residence or working permits in Kosovo but are detained for working at educational institutions targeted by the Turkish government. Media reports suggest that they are currently being held in Pristina airport and are risking illegal transfer to Turkey.

Kosovo had previously detained another Turkish national, Ugur Toksoy, but a Kosovar court suspended the extradition process due to lack of material evidence. We are deeply concerned for further detentions by the Kosovar police. The Turkish government is targeting other Hizmet movement participants abroad, and UN sources indicate that 200 more Hizmet participants in Kosovo are among those to be detained. The detainees risk extradition to Turkey, where any critic is persecuted and jailed with no justifiable indictment. International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have reported on their inhumane treatment in Turkish prisons including ill-treatment, overcrowding, torture, and rape. Rule of law no longer exists in Turkey as the Erdogan regime goes to great lengths to repress any opposition through an ongoing systematic campaign to persecute thousands of innocent individuals including teachers, academics, and doctors.

We urge the Kosovo government to immediately halt these detentions of innocent people and prevent their extradition to Turkey, where they would face torture, ill-treatment and risk to their lives. We also urge the UNHCR and international institutions to take action against Erdogan’s extrajudicial efforts outside of Turkey.

 

Source: Alliance for Shared Values , March 29, 2018

Tags: | | | | | |


Related News

Heartbreaking stories of Turkish Refugees in Greece

A.T.S told that their next plan was to live in a state where no pressure and tyranny would harm them anymore. “We want to go to a country where we can live humanely, where our children can receive good education, where there is no pressure and tyranny.”

Retired on disability, former bomb disposal expert kept in jail for a month over Gülen links

Bilal Konakçı, a former bomb disposal expert for the İzmir Police Department who was retired after he lost his right hand and both eyes while trying to dispose of a bomb in 2009, was detained on Dec. 20 over links to the faith-based Gülen movement, and his wife is worried about his health as authorities refuse to allow the family to contact him.

Call for Papers – International Gandhi Jayanti Conference 2015

Education is at the heart of the core problems of a society, potential solutions for making a healthy society and for peace building as well. Education is the key to eliminating gender inequality, to reducing poverty, to creating a sustainable planet, to preventing needless deaths and illness, and to fostering peace.

Turkey’s Unethical Interference in American (Muslim) Civic Society is Dangerous

The Erdogan government jails its citizens without due process, severely curtails freedom of speech by jailing journalists, and ignores the plight of vulnerable minorities. They are the least credible messengers to warn Americans about their civic duty. The Turkish Consulate’s attempt to use McCarthyite tactics to spread fear and unduly influence American civic life is simply abhorrent and deserves condemnation.

Islamism is dead!

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is a political party; for this reason, it views the Islamic references it relies on as political ideology. The Gülen movement, on the other hand, is a social movement that mobilizes religiosity and uses it as a source of energy.

Erdogan and Gulen: Inevitable Clash?

Unlike Turkey’s classical Islamic activists, Gulen always distanced himself from politics, and like Said Nursi, his main source of inspiration, his message was focused on grassroots social activism, most importantly an education combining both Islam and modern science. Hizmet’s main goal was social: raising a new “golden” generation fusing moderate Muslim and Modern ethics to become the backbone of Turkey’s society and bureaucracy and its messengers to the world.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Statement on Journalists Arrests

‘Parallel state’ and ‘theft of national will’

Campaign seeks donations for purge-victim Turkish refugees in Greece

Leak deepens AKP-Gulen rift

A Rabbi’s meeting with Hocaefendi Fethullah Gülen

Kimse Yok Mu uplifts orphans in Tacloban

‘Nigerians and their leaders won’t fall for Erdogan’s harebrained gambit’

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News