It wasn't expulsion, it was kidnapping

So far, it has remained unclear which of the local leaders gave the order to become their expulsion, but it is President Hashim Thaci who has expressed some reconciliation for the move, also receiving thanks from Erdogan for co-operation.

Meanwhile, the prime minister and parliament speaker have openly voiced opposition to their expulsion, saying the entire action, until its outcome was kept secret.

Periscopi interviewed college director “Mehmet Akif”, Nazim Ulus, who has called it Turkish kidnapping. Ulus, speaking of Periscope, has said their life in Turkey is not safe.

For Periscope, he has said that against the 6 employees of the educational institution he runs, electroshoc has been used on the plane he has transported to Turkey.

Among other things, he has talked about the day of arrest, the experience of collaborators and family members, media reports on the reasons for deportation, the future of Kosovo's political educational institutions, etc.

Total interview:

Periscope: Mr. Ulus, thank you for accepting the interview with the Periscop portal.

Ulus: It's my pleasure, Mr. Shpend. You're welcome here.

Periscope: As the first question... how did you comment on everything that happened after the deportation of 6 Turkish citizens who were workers of your educational institution “Mehmet Akif College”?

Ulus: Those people are not deported. They were actually kidnapped by Turkey's Intelligent Service from here. Yes, five of our staff were working in our institution, in the Glisistan educational institution, and one of them was a famous doctor in Turkey. They are arrested by police forces here, but have been handed over to Turkey's intelligence agency. Yeah, we're worried about their lives, their health. We're really worried about what might happen to them, what lies ahead. You know... if you're imprisoned in Turkey, there's no guarantee that your life is safe.

Periscope: Have you had any contact with them so far?

Ulus: Yes, not personally, but their family and lawyers have managed to contact them, have had a chance to meet them. This is truly surprising to us because in Turkey it is a state of emergency after the attempt on coups that seem to last for a long time. It is quite impossible to visit your relatives, meet your relatives under arrest. It's strange how their lawyers have managed to contact them.

Periscope: How are they treated? What do they say so far?

Ulus: According to what their lawyers told us, when they were handed over to Turkey's intelligent service here, their hands were tied to Turkey and their feet were covered. This is a normal procedure for criminals considered terrorists by the Erdogan regime. One of their lawyers has told us that electrosoch was used against them. After reaching the international airport “Sabiha Gökchen” in Turkey, according to information we have, is in good health so far, but on the trip to Turkey, it was not an easy trip for them.

Periscope: Several protests have been held in Pristina. From your people?

Ulus: An improvement: We haven't organized these protests. Students, graduates, and their parents have organized them. We haven't put any pressure on them. They organized them and invited us. They made us happy and boasted about our students, our graduates, and their parents.

Periscope: How do you see the co-operation of Kosovo institutions, such as the Kosovo Intelligence Agency and the Kosovo Police, with Turkish intelligent services for their deportation, even though it is not yet clear how this all happened, who gave the order and everything else?

Ulus: Yes, it is not clear who in Kosovo organised this, who helped the Turkish agency operate, but I would like that such an operation not be undertaken here, because so far we have believed in democracy and Kosovo authorities and that we are safe here, and we still want to believe in this, we want to maintain that trust, but it is evident that Turkish agents have been assisted by some institutions here. But I can't talk to names here, I can't blame someone for this, but it's all obvious.

Periscope: Meanwhile, no reason has been given for their deportation. It's been reported in the media that they're two for a few things.

UlusYeah, but a normal procedure for someone who's suspicious didn't work out. All our friends have lived here for many years. If they were guilty, they would have to be tried here, according to Kosovo laws. If their guilt were to be proved, they would be punished, normal. But being sent to Turkey, against the laws and the Constitution, is unfair.

Periscope: So you don't believe all these unofficial reports that say the Kosovo Intelligence Agency has compiled reports that say deporters were preparing terrorist attacks?

Ulus: I think all the suspects should be tried here. They can be true or not. We do not know exactly what they are blamed for. I believe they're not guilty of anything. There is no problem with their stay here, their residence permit, or anything, however, they would have to be tried here at least. They did not undergo a normal procedure. There are other procedures for extradition or deportation, or aborting residence permit. None of these procedures have worked in this case.

Periscope: Were you at school when they were arrested?

Ulus: Yes. On Thursday morning when they were arrested, when this happened, we were at school. Yusuf Karabina, vice president of our account, Sylviastan... his car was stopped by the police... you probably saw the footage from the cameras... his family, his wife and son were attacked by police and pulled violently by police. She, her husband and daughter, have been attacked and forcibly withdrawn from the police. It was the first event we knew about this. In the meantime, our branch in Gjakova has been visited, I'm saying that police and three of our staff, school principal, chemist and biologist Hasan Hysen do and Chihen Ozkan do, have been arrested in front of students, while the students were still at school. They were arrested before their eyes. By 9:30, Osman Karakya was taken to his home and sent to the airport. When we learned of all these events, our general director and local adviser from here went to visit them at Pristina Police Station and Mustafa Erden do, was arrested in front of the police station when he went to ask what was going on.

Periscope: Can you tell us what your institution represents? People have labeled you and your staff working here as gylenists. What do the jihadist institutions represent?

Ulus: Yes. From now on, we have this label, which is gylenistic. Being a gylenist is not a crime, this is the first thing I have to say about this matter. Mr. Fetullah Gylenn, is a truly precious person, a precious Turk. I can say that his ideas and thoughts are important to us, and I am personally deeply influenced by his ideas. But that doesn't make me a gylenist andgynist is not the same as being a terrorist, because none of them in the whole world have any weapons and never used guns to commit a crime. And it doesn't matter if Erdogan says they're terrorists. I can say for sure that we are not terrorists.

Periscope: The media reports that those arrested had millions of euros in bank circulation and that your organisation supports nongovernmental organisations, political parties, media, etc. Is that true and if it is, what is the purpose?

Ulus: If you blame someone, and if you blame an institution for something, you have to testify to it and I can't prove I'm not guilty. If you blame me for being guilty, you must prove it. It's a tradition of Turkish media and their news seems to be being broken up by media here. I can tell you this is bullshit news. Our accounting, our financial system is open to any kind of control, and our lawyers in Kosovo have clarified and declared finances. We're going to repeat, I can say for sure we don't have any financial problems here. No money laundering. We're clean and we're open to any kind of control.

Periscope: What is the future of your institutions? Will it become harder to function normally?

Ulus: In Kosovo we have been in education since 2000. It's been 18 years working here with our staff. At 5 branches, in 5 different schools, we now have 250 teachers and 1700 students. And all of our staff, all of whose teachers are from Turkey, some from the United States, most are Kosovars. I can say that all 250 professors are elite, the highest. Our staff is above Kosovo standards. Unfortunately, we lost five of our staff and when you compare 5 to 250 teachers, that's not that big. I believe and I really want to tell the Albanian students and community here that we will continue what we did before this event, as is Wednesday's event. We will give the best education in this country and from now on we will intensify it and give even better education than Kosovo standards.

Periscope: Do you doubt that something like that, like the previous event, can happen again?

Ulus: We did not suspect that such a thing would happen. We felt really safe here because we believed in Kosovo tradition and still believe in this tradition. From now on, something like this will never happen again. Our schools will not be closed and I am convinced that Albanians, Kosovars, will not allow the Erdogan regime to operate in this state anymore?

Periscope: How did you comment all the support you received from Kosovo citizens?

Ulus: We truly appreciate their support. Many families came and visited our schools. You should see those scenes. Most of them cried, told us “M We can't protect you. One of our colleagues took a cab to school and told him to send it to the Mehmet Akif College. He was a driver, a taxi driver, his son or his daughter are not in our school, we had no prior contact with him. He said “forgive me. I'm so sorry we couldn't protect you”. So some people ask me what we're going to do from now on and I tell them we can't betray anyone who helped and supported us so much, we're going to continue with education in our schools, we're going nowhere else.

Periscope: As a last question, do you expect any official statements from Kosovo institutions to clarify what happened, because as we said, it has not yet been clarified?

Ulus: Yes, I expect that to happen and the Kosovo authorities must do so, it is a duty for them.

Periscope: If you don't have something to add, we can end this.

Ulus: What I want to add is to repeat once again that I am truly grateful to the Kosovo community, everyone in Kosovo, every person. We have contributed to the education system in Kosovo and will continue to do so in the future. We're gonna keep the standards up here and I want to tell the students that we're here, we're gonna continue to give education if they're with us. During this period, during the past week, I realized that we are in the hearts of Kosovars or Albanians here. If they keep us in their hearts, we'll try hard to stay here.

Periscope: Thank you, Director.

Ulus: Thank you very much.