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

Escape from Turkey’s parallel reality

As a law-abiding citizen, I knew I had done nothing wrong to be stopped at the border. But in Turkey being a journalist from Zaman media group was enough for me to be considered an “enemy of the state.” And I was the editor-in-chief of Today’s Zaman which had been brutally taken over a few days earlier, earning me a suspended jail sentence for my tweets criticizing then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Sweep these [journalists] off the floor

Sevgi Akarçeşme, former editor in chief of Today’s Zaman, recalls the night when the police raided the building of the most important and independent opposition newspaper in Turkey. «What happened to journalists today» she warns « can happen to citizens tomorrow».

University preparatory courses and the Hizmet movement in Turkey

Most (university) preparatory courses (in Turkey) are run by the Hizmet movement, and it is very clear that the government’s steps to close down such courses, an action against the movement, will negatively affect a great number of people. Many analysts said it is impossible for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which does not have a good relationship with the Hizmet movement, to close down preparatory courses in the run-up to the pre-election period.

Beating ‘domestic enemies’ in the game of ‘advanced’ democracy

The writers, intellectuals and the journalists close to the Hizmet movement have, from the very beginning, called on the government to take legal steps against those whom he constantly labels the “parallel state” so that they could also know who they are.

LDP leader says received ‘indecent proposal’ from pro-gov’t paper

“They said I would make the headline story of the newspaper if I agreed to speak to them about the existence and alleged activities of a parallel state. I rejected this indecent proposal. Let them keep their headlines and proposal,” the LDP leader said on Thursday, speaking to Today’s Zaman.

Erdoğan’s overarching purge is not a road accident

The purge of the Hizmet Movement is what the Kurdish question was to Kemalism, a necessary tool with which to construct a new national identity, a tool to silence those who question it, and to design a social and political system that will foster it. Unfortunately, Turkey has no chance of going back, even to its fragile and dysfunctional democracy, without this narrative being completely rejected.

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

Albanian parliament speaker visits Turkish school after Erdoğan calls for its closure

EU calls on Turkey to Investigate abduction cases targeting Gülen Movement

Pillar of Society or Threat to Democracy?

Turkish woman returned to prison immediately after giving birth

Farewell of Pak-Turk Teachers: Symbolic Burial of a Heart

U.S. State Department, Citing Security, Suspends [Fulbright] Teaching Program in Turkey

Gülen’s message on ISIL in UK-based Guardian newspaper

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News