Turkish teachers linked to Erdogan foe Gulen are detained in Afghanistan
Ex-police investigator tells of fleeing Turkey with evidence of corruption at high-ranking levels
KABUL (Reuters) – One Afghan and three Turkish teachers linked to an organization regarded with suspicion by the Turkish government were detained by Afghan intelligence officials on Tuesday, the organization’s head said.
The move against Afghan Turk CAG Educational NGO (ATCE), the body that runs the schools, appeared to be part of a Turkish campaign against followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric it accuses of being behind a coup attempt in July 2016 aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
ATCE, which says it is an independent organization, runs schools in several cities including Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Heart, and has been in Afghanistan since 1995.
“Around 7 a.m., four of our teachers traveling in two different cars were picked up by [Afghan intelligence],” said Human Erdogan, the chairman of ATCE.
Other intelligence officials later went to the group’s girls school nearby looking for another teacher, he said, adding that the men presented themselves as members of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.
Neither the NDS nor the Afghan government immediately responded to requests for comment.
In March, Afghanistan ordered the schools to be transferred to a foundation approved by Ankara.
Last year, shortly before a visit to Islamabad by the Turkish president, Pakistan ordered Turkish teachers at schools run by a body called PakTurk International Schools and Colleges to leave the country.
Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who nows lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, promotes a moderate form of Islam, supporting interfaith communication and Western-style education and inspiring schools in different parts of the world. He has denied any involvement in the 2016 failed coup attempt.
Meanwhile, a former Turkish police investigator told jurors in a New York City court on Monday of fleeing Turkey in 2016 out of fear of retaliation from the government after leading a corruption investigation involving high-ranking officials, taking his evidence with him.
Huseyin Korkmaz, 30, was testifying in Manhattan federal court for US prosecutors in the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at the majority state-owned Halkbank, who is accused of taking part in a scheme with gold trader Reza Zarrab to help Iran evade US sanctions.
Halkbank has denied involvement with any illegal transactions. Zarrab, a Turkish and Iranian national, has pleaded guilty and testified against Atilla, saying he used fraudulent food and gold transactions to launder money for Iran with the help of Atilla and others. Atilla has pleaded not guilty.
“I took my wife and my daughter and I left the country that I dearly love,” Korkmaz testified.
He said he eventually came to the United States with the help of US law enforcement authorities, bringing audio recordings and other evidence from his investigation.
US prosecutors have charged a total of nine people in the case. Only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by US authorities.
Korkmaz testified on Monday that he began investigating Zarrab in 2012 for smuggling gold and money laundering. He told the jury that the investigation expanded to encompass government officials, including Erdogan, then prime minister; Zafer Caglayan, then finance minister; and former Halkbank general manager Suleyman Aslan.
Korkmaz did not give details about any thread of his investigation that included Erdogan.
Erdogan was never charged. He has called the Turkish investigation a “judicial coup” and has said the US case is politically motivated.
Caglayan and Aslan have not spoken publicly about the case, and Reuters was unable to reach them for comment.
Korkmaz testified that he ordered searches of multiple individuals’ homes in December 2013 and that evidence of bribes from Zarrab was found in Aslan’s home. Korkmaz said that he never saw evidence that Atilla had taken bribes.
He testified that soon after the searches, he was reassigned to another unit.
He told the jury that he decided to leave Turkey in 2016 because another prosecutor had requested an order for his arrest and he did not feel safe.