Turkey’s continuing crackdown in the wake of the failed July 15 coup has taken a new twist.
Turkish police have arrested and deported at least 50 Nigerian students. The majority of the youths attended the Fathi University, founded by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey has blamed for a failed military coup in July.
The Istanbul university is among thousands of educational buildings Turkey has shut down following the failed coup.
Rukkaya Usman, one of the deported students, told The Cable her passport was seized when she arrived in Turkey for a new academic session and she was sent back to Nigeria as part of a “new law”. Sola Enikanolaiye, an official at Nigeria’s ministry of foreign affairs, says the government has met with Hakan Cakil, the Turkish ambassador to Nigeria, to demand it furnish “a reasonable explanation” and release the detained students.
The Turkish government has not yet commented on the incident.
The deportation came months after Cakil asked Nigeria to close 17 Islamic schools linked to the Gulen movement – an Islamic religious and social organisation known as Hizmet. The diplomat alleged the schools were being used to recruit terrorists.
In response to Cakil’s claims, Nigerian senator Shehu Sani urged the federal government to investigate the allegations.
David Otto, CEO of global security provider TGS Intelligence Consultants, believes that the antagonism between the Turkish government and Himzet explains the allegations made by Cakil. However, he told IBTimes UK there was “no credible evidence that Hizmet is recruiting potential terrorists in its schools or other known establishments.”
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