An Afghan-Turk Boys High School was raided by the Afghan security forces under the command of Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum, controversial First Vice President of Afghanistan, early Saturday morning and detained Turkish teachers, dozens of students and their parents in order to seize the school at the request of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.
A Turkish teacher, who was allegedly kidnapped in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar and taken to the city’s airport, has been released after authorities temporarily grounded an airplane, according to local media and a social media posting by the man.
After the alleged military coup that failed, the Islamic-rooted government forced hundreds of thousands of faith-based community members out of Turkey, causing a massive diaspora of Turkish citizens (deprived, however, of their citizenship) around the world.
A woman and her three children went missing after a boat carrying several Turkish asylum seekers who fled Turkey due to an ongoing government crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement capsized in the Evros River along the Turkey-Greece border on Wednesday night, Euronews Turkish reported.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent re-election is fueling concerns about his growing powers not just in Turkey but here in the U.S., according to experts who believe he’s determined to spread his controversial brand of Islamist-nationalistic fervor through a network of mosques and religious centers.
Eighty-six-year-old businessman Celal Afşar was arrested on Thursday along with his daughter, son-in-law and two others in Niğde province as part of an investigation into the faith-based Gülen movement, the tr724 news website reported.
Norway has said the number of asylum seekers from Turkey has been increasing substantially. 245 Turkish nationals have claimed asylum in 2018, including 142 arrriving in June. The total number of asylum seekers was 164 in 2017, according to Norway’s Directorate of Immigration.
“Our decision to come to Greece developed very suddenly. I did not want to leave my country that I loved so much. Especially it gives different meaning if you have your parents and relatives still live there. It was very difficult to leave the country, but the persecution was also accelerated on the one hand. Every day, we read news about tortures under custody and prisons on the media…
Erdogan’s aggressive policies, which have driven many Turks into exile, seem to have had an unintentional side-effect. “A bridge is being built between Turks and Greeks,” the English teacher says. “We’re learning to overcome prejudices and historical misunderstandings.”
Turkish government has transferred about 49,4 billion liras ($11 billion) of assets of 1,124 companies seized from those who have alleged affiliation to the Gülen movement to a special fund under a crackdown that began following a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.