Turkish ambassador summoned over imam

Calgarian held in Turkey amid coup crackdown

Turkey’s ambassador in Ottawa has been summoned to a meeting with Canadian officials following reports the Turkish government has arrested a Calgary man in connection with this month’s failed coup.

Turkish media are accusing Davud Hanci of helping orchestrate the July 15 coup attempt, during which more than 200 people were killed.

Photos of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric who Turkey accuses of masterminding the failed coup, and a man identified as Hanci are being splashed in Turkish newspapers.

Global Affairs Canada is refusing to say much about Hanci’s case, citing privacy laws.

However, a source familiar with the meeting says officials want Turkish Ambassador Selcuk Unal to explain why Hanci is being detained.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, could not say whether Canadian officials have been able to meet with Hanci in Turkey.

Hanci’s wife, Rumeysa, called from a police station in Turkey on Monday to say she was able to see her husband for between 30 seconds and a minute, said her brother Selman Durmus, who lives in Toronto.

“All she could ask is, ‘How are you?’ to my brotherin-law and that was pretty much it,” said Durmus, relaying what another sister, who also lives in Toronto, told him about the call. “He said he was doing all right. He was stressed out. That was pretty much it.”

Hanci, an imam who provides spiritual counselling to prisoners, is not the person in the photograph with Gulen, a critic and former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Durmus said.

“They do look alike, but they’re not the same person at all,” he said.

Hanci, his wife and two sons, who are eight and nine, left for Turkey on July 7 to visit Hanci’s ailing father. Had the father not been so gravely ill, it’s likely they would have opted to take the trip another time, Durmus said.

Family friend Malik Muradov also spoke to Hanci’s wife on Monday. He said she told him she wanted to talk to her husband for longer before leaving the country.

“I am concerned because the situation in Turkey is pretty critical,” said Muradov, who runs the Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Calgary, an organization for which Hanci has volunteered.

In an interview earlier Monday with The Canadian Press, Unal said he did not know the specifics of Hanci’s case.