Concerned about the human rights of the Turkish men being deported back to Turkey by the Malaysian government? Want to champion the cause of not arresting and deporting citizens of a country while abroad, only to send them back to a regime that will most certainly arrest, allegedly torture and perhaps murder them?
Well don’t cry to Putrajaya, says Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahamad Zahid Hamidi. Take it up with Turkey. If you’re wondering what the country code is, it’s +90 and their phone “hello” is “Alo.”
“The three arrested were members of an organisation banned by the Turkish government. We handed them back to their government for further action,” said the Deputy PM.
“Any international body that wants to take up a human rights issue or anything else for the trio can deal directly with the Turkish authorities,” he said at a dinner organised by Retired Senior Police Association in Kuala Lumpur last night.
Last Friday, the Malaysian government arrested and deported three men Turgay Karaman, Ihsan Aslan and Ismet Ozcelik back to Ankara, a week after being taken into custody. The shocking CCTV video of Karaman being taken from a Damansara Heights office parking lot appeared to be more of a kidnapping than arrest. The video shows plain-clothed men leading Karaman brusquely away from him car, and his wife was only informed of the arrest after filing a police report of his kidnapping.
The men are all said to be linked to the Gulen Movement. The movement is named after exiled leader, preacher Fethullah Gulen. He’s been deemed the biggest threat to current President Reccep Tayip Erdogan’s increasingly constrictive government. The Gulen Movement, besides being accused of being a secretive Islamic sect with a “cultish hierarchy”, is also said to dabble in matters of “global, apocalyptic ambition”.
The Stockholm Centre of Freedom echoed earlier claims by blog Turkish Minute, that the Malaysian government was playing a game of dirty diplomacy in its complicity with the oppressive Turkish regime.
If you’d like to leave your thoughts with Erdogan, may we refer you to his official Facebook page. Ironically, Facebook being something he had banned last year during protests.
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