OONIB AZAM / SARFARAZ MEMON / Z ALI / RIAZUL HAQ Uncertainty surrounds the future of Pak-Turk schools in the country. In the wake of the foiled military coup in Turkey, the country’s ambassador to Pakistan has urged for the shutdown of all Pak-Turk schools and colleges which belong to the alleged US-based ‘mastermind of […]
Sherko Hama Amin, a member of the Kurdistan Parliament’s Education Committee, told NRT that schools should not be shut down over political reasons, especially a political issue outside the region. The Turkish government has previously, even before the July 15 military coup attempt, called on the KRG to close schools connected to the Gulen movement in the region.
Speaking with TheCable in an interview on Friday, Cemal Yigit, spokesman of NTIC, said Gulen does not own the Turkish schools in Nigeria, and that the schools are the property of private investors – some of them Nigerians. He said that the Turkish government was on a purge of the opposition in Turkey, and that it was trying to decimate any organisation that shared the philosophy of Gulen by tagging them terrorists.
The official demand has now apparently been watered down to transfer ownership/administration of these educational institutions to the official Maarif Foundation tasked by the Turkish government to encourage foreign governments to seize other Turkish educational foundations operating in those countries, possibly targeting enterprises run by individuals close to US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen.
Indonesia rejects any intervention with the country’s internal affairs including over alleged links of a number of Indonesian Islamic boarding schools with Fethullah Gulen, a popular imam, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a recent failed coup attempt. Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said here on Friday Indonesia is a democratic country that consistently adopts active and independent policy.
For an economy almost in recession, these kind of controversies could be worrisome. This is actually not the time to close down any legitimate business in Nigeria. Turkish schools and their promoters have not really given the Nigerian government any reason to worry. They have been law abiding citizens in Nigeria.
Ankara-The Turkish authorities’ pursuit of Fethullah Gulen’s schools is damaging Turkey’s relations with some countries that host schools of “Hizmet Movement” (Service Movement of Gulen), classified by Ankara as a terrorist organization.
In response to statements made by the Turkish ambassador to Cambodia on Monday, officials from the Zaman International School (ZIS) yesterday denied any links with terrorist organizations, saying the ambassador’s claims were unfounded and lacked evidence.
Two students wearing red long-sleeve shirts combined with checkered skirts were chatting fluently in English while playing at the grounds of Kharisma Bangsa Bilingual boarding school on Tuesday afternoon. Meters away, in a guest room within the school’s lobby, a parent was speaking with a Turkish teacher.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan condemned the expected move to close Pak-Turk schools across the country.
“We stand firmly by Turkish democracy but closure of Pak-Turk schools in Pakistan, which has a high illiteracy rate, could be disastrous for the country,” he said.