Turkish national Zabit Kişi was reportedly abducted from a plane by a group of unknown people in Kazakh city of Almaty, his wife said in a recent video recording during which she also expressed concerns over Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s long arm abroad.
Social media accounts familiar with the issue supposed that Zabit Kişi had links with the Gülen movement. President Erdogan has already called on foreign governments to punish alleged followers of the Gülen movement in their own countries.
According to media, Zabit Kişi disappeared while he was on his way back to Kyrgyzistan along with another Turkish national, Enver Kılıç, also reported by his wife to be missing in the same way.
Family members fear that their beloved ones have been caught in Turkey’s post-coup dragnet in which many overseas followers of the Gülen movement were put in jail after they were deported back to Turkey.
A group of countries including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia, Pakistan and Myanmar have so far handed over academics, businessmen and school principals upon the Turkish government’s request even though some of those victims had refugee status with the UN.
In the latest of such incidents, Pakistan’s anti-terror police violently detained Mesut Kaçmaz, a former principal of the PakTurk Schools which are affiliated with the Gülen movement along with his family, and deport them to Turkey even though the family had secured asylum certificates by United Nations.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. (SCF with turkeypurge.com)
