Calgary imam detained in Turkey amid crackdown
Family and friends of a Calgary man detained in Turkey — accused of involvement with a failed coup attempt — call his arrest “inconceivable” and are fearful for his family’s safety.
Davud Hanci was taken into custody in Turkey on Saturday and has since had his name and photograph splashed across Turkish media, allegedly for being the right hand of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric accused of organizing the effort to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hanci works with correctional services as an imam.
Reverend Dr. Moses Yuen says accusations made against his friend and colleague Hanci are hard for him to believe.
He wonders: Who takes their wife and kids with them to Turkey to overthrow the government?
“When I saw the news I was shocked,” Yuen said. “It’s just inconceivable to me. “I’ve known him for the past four years — I’ve gotten to know him fairly well. “To me, he is a fine gentleman.” Selman Durmus, the brother of Hanci’s wife, Rumeysa Hanci, said she called her family in Toronto as her husband was being arrested.
Durmus last spoke to his sister Sunday morning and said she isn’t being held, but he and his family are concerned for her and her two young sons’ safety.
Malik Muradov, executive director of Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Calgary, said Hanci’s father, suffering from heart issues, is the reason the imam and his family headed to Turkey earlier this month.
Muradov said his group is inspired by Gulen, but is a peaceful social movement.
The connection isn’t lost on some members of the Turkish community in Calgary.
“I’m not going to say that he’s part of it — I’m no judge,” Mahmoud Mourra said outside Calgary City Hall on Sunday afternoon during a pro-Erdogan rally he helped to organize.
“But I know he was in Turkey at a certain time (and) he got arrested based on some accusations. I feel bad for him — I feel sorry for him.
“We know he’s a great guy, but we don’t know what happened there.”
Mahmut Elbasi of the Anatolian Turkish Islamic Centre of Calgary, who has known Hanci through the centre and as a friend for years, said he’s having trouble getting information from back home about what’s going on.
“I don’t know what we can do for him right now,” he said.
“Everybody is scared to do something right now in Turkey and they’re afraid to talk about it.”
Elbasi said calls are being made to elected officials in Canada, and friends and colleagues plan to meet this week to see what else they can do to help Hanci.
Global Affairs Canada has said it’s aware of a Canadian dual citizen detained in Turkey but haven’t confirmed it’s Hanci.
• The family of a Canadian man they say is being held in Turkey on accusations he was a leader of the failed July 15 military coup is trying to get Davud Hanci’s wife and children out of the country.
The family says Hanci was detained and his name has appeared in Turkish media in connection with the coup attempt.
Selman Durmus, the brother of Hanci’s wife Rumeysa Hanci, says she called her family in Toronto as her husband was being arrested.
Durmus last spoke to his sister Sunday morning and says she isn’t being held, but he and his family are concerned for her and her two young sons’ safety, and want to bring them back to Canada.
Hanci, who lives in Calgary and works as an imam for Correctional Service Canada and Alberta correctional services, went to Turkey for a holiday with his wife and children on July 7.
Durmus says the family travelled to the Turkish city of Trabzon on the Black Sea to visit Hanci’s ailing father.
His sister is a dual Canadian-Turkish citizen, and the couple’s sons were born in Canada.
“As far as we know, at the moment she is OK, but she does feel in danger,” he said.
Turkish media reports claim Hanci — who a family friend says is a dual citizen of Canada and Turkey — is from Pennsylvania and was working for U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a critic and former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Durmus said Sunday.
Some of the articles include photographs of a man who looks like Hanci, a prominent member of Calgary’s Turkish community.
Durmus said he watched Turkish media reports that called Hanci “the right-hand man” of Fethullah Gulen.
“Media sources are saying ‘the mastermind of the coup attack.’ ... This guy is just a regular guy. He just went to visit his father. None of the things that they’re claiming make any sense,” he said.
“He’s not from the U.S. and he’s not from Pennsylvania. He’s a Calgarian. He’s working here (and) he has family here — his kids go to school here,” said Malik Muradov, executive director of Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Calgary.