A Turkish teacher named Uğur Toksoy was detained by Kosovo authorities just following a visit by Ankara Chief Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman, to the land over his alleged links to the Gülen movement on Friday.
According to information given by his friends in Kosovo, Uğur Toksoy, an employee of the Atmosfera Educational Foundation Prizren, was detained by Kosovo police on Friday upon the request of Turkish government. Prizren Prosecutor Admir Shala told Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency that Uğur Toksoy was transferred from Prizren to Pristina and determined to be keep under him detention for 40 days.
His friends said that forcible deport of Uğur Toksoy to Turkey risks him to face torture, ill-treatment and they called the human rights organisations to act to protect him from human rights violations and other abuses targeting Toksoy who is under risk of imminent deportation to Turkey.
“Considering that the expulsion of Uğur Toksoy could lead to his unlawful imprisonment and make him subject to torture and ill-treatment in Turkey, we urge all human rights organisations to take immediate action.”
Until today Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia, Myanmar and Pakistan handed over academics, businessmen and teachers to Turkey upon the Turkish government’s request even though some of those victims already had refugee status with the UN.
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.
[…] This article originally appeared on the Stockholm Center for Freedom’s (SCF) website on Oct 29… […]