Indonesia deports Turkish businessman to Turkey over Erdoğan regime’s request

Mustafa Kenel, a Turkish businessman, was reportedly deported by Indonesian government to Turkey on December 16, 2017 over his alleged links to the Gülen movement.

According to a report by online news outlet TR724, Kenel was detained together with 4 other Turkish citizens by the Indonesian authorities after a list of 10 people were given to the Indonesian government by Turkish government under the rule of autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. As 4 of the detainees were later released, Kenel was deported to Turkey. It was also reported that Kenel has testified in İstanbul’s Bakırköy Courthouse.

Mustafa Kenel, who is married with three children, went Indonesia in 1992 to study at university. Since then he had resided in Indonesia and owns a parquet factory and coal mine in the country.

The witch hunt launched in 2013 in Turkey targeting the alleged followers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a massive corruption and bribery scandal of Turkish government ministers and their family members on December 17-25, 2013 has even affected other countries. Erdoğan put the pressure on the many governments to close the educational and cultural institutions alleged to be affiliated with the movement and to deport the Turkish citizens working in these institutions.

Previously Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia and Myanmar bow before Erdoğan regime’s pressure and handed over Turkish academics, businessmen and school principals, teachers affiliated with the Gülen movement to Turkish government even though some of those victims already had refugee status with the UN like Mesut Kaçmaz and his family in Pakistan.

Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. Turkey’s Interior Minister announced on December 12, 2017 that 55,665 people have been arrested. Previously, on December 13, 2017, The Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.

Published on Stockholm Center for Freedom, 19 December 2017, Tuesday