Turkey snatches 'Gulenist' teachers in Moldova
Today's reported abduction and deportation of at least six Turkish nationals in Moldova comes as Ankara's latest move against suspected Gulenists in countries where there is weak rule of law.
Turkish and Moldovan intelligence services have reportedly detained at least six Turkish nationals employed at a private chain of high schools in Moldova today, part of Ankara’s controversial global campaign to seize and render individuals linked to exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen back to Turkey.
Details remain sketchy but Moldova’s secret service, the SIS, stated that its anti-terror arm had carried out an “operation” today in “several localities” to “prevent threats to national security,” reported Balkan Insight, an online media outlet.
The Turkish media also confirmed the detentions had taken place. Gunes, a pro-government propaganda sheet, gloated on Twitter of Turkey’s national spy agency, “MIT is back on the scene. Six members of FETO were bundled off like this.” Photographs of large, muscular men shoving people including a child into an unmarked white van accompanied the tweet. BOLDmedya, a YouTube account dedicated to government persecution of Gulenists, posted footage allegedly shot at the scene of a brown Volvo with darkened windows and men wearing black ski masks inside. It’s unclear where the detainees were taken.
Amnesty International indicated they had been deported back to Turkey in a press release: "The Moldovan authorities ignored their international human rights obligations when they detained and deported seven Turkish nationals reportedly seeking asylum in Moldova this morning."
