Major Israeli newspaper publishes confessions of women of 6 Turks kidnapped by Kosovo

Turkey has kidnapped more than 100 suspected members of Fetullah Gylen's movement in many countries of the world over the past few years. Through a writing of the prestigious Israeli newspaper “Haretz”, confessions of women whose men have been kidnapped by Kosovo and are now suffering in Turkey's prisons.

It's one thing to lose your husband or father. But it is another thing to lose it as a result of Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan's protracted hand, and his hunt for evangelists across the globe, writes “Haaretz“.

On March 29th, Yaselim Karabina's husband, Yusuf, was one of six persons captured by Kosovo intelligence authorities during an early and secret operation in the morning.

All the men who worked in schools linked to Gulen's movement had been extradited to Turkey by a private plane, and were tortured on the way, given the lawyer's statements appointed by the kidnapped family.

Erdogan, meanwhile, blames religious cleric Fetullah Gulen, who stays in the US, and his followers for trying to hit the country in July 2016.

Cihan Ozkan, Hasan Huseyin Gunkan, Kahraman Demirez, Mustafa Erdem, Osman Karakaya and Jusuf Karabina are charged with belonging to the Fetullah Gulen movement, which Turkey considers terrorist. They were accused of helping the Gyplinists leave Turkey for Europe and the US. Their photos had been taken in Turkish media, presenting them as a member of ʹ FETO.

Even after six months of local media reports of ackidnapping, the links of those arrested to terrorist activities have no connection to their families.

Kosovo has easily pardoned Turkish intervention”, was the title of an opinion written by Kosovo journalist Nectar Zogjan. Yet, all have forgiven him.

Our “Friends are being blamed for being part of the coup attempt” says Nazimi Ulus, director of the Mehmet Akif College, located in Lipjan near Pristina.

“How is it possible?” he asks. “Sounds ridiculous”.

Over 100 kidnappings

It does not seem ridiculous that Erdogan has been re-elected in June as president for another five years. Meanwhile, in recent months there have been attempts at the kidnapping of the Gygynists in Azerbejdjan, Ukraine and Gabon, while a recent attempt by Turkish secret authorities on such a thing failed in Mongolia.

Last month, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevluut Cavusoglu boasted the fact that Turkish intelligence service authorities have managed to capture more than 100 members suspected of linked to the movement of Fetullah Gulen in the past two years alone.

Karabina, Feyza Gunkan and Olcay Demirez, the three men were kidnapped on Tuesday morning in March, and now seem powerless to do anything. Their stories show that Erdogan's hunting of gilensists around the globe also has a human cost.

At Lipjan School, where her husband Yusuf was deputy director, Yasemin Karabina, recalls developments that morning. By sending their 15-year-old son to school, their car was stopped by police forces. They asked for Joseph's husband's record.

Yasemin Karabina relates that after several minutes of halt, their doubts began to grow: they were aware of the kidnappings of so-called '%gynists in other parts of the world.

There was no sign that the people who stopped us were police officers, Karabina says,

She says the security cameras show how they were dragged out of the car and that she was hurt during that action.

She relates that after all that big mess, she saw her husband no longer in the car. “The last contact was in the car”, she says.

Children Without Fathers

Karabina's son is not the only child left without a father. Olcay Demirez also has a three-year-old son with her husband, Kahraman. Both were kidnapped by a law school in Gjakova.

Based on what Olclay Demirez says, her husband had gone to school before 8 am to prepare the students for a field exercise. They were playing in the school yard waiting for the bus to arrive.

Then, the story continues, three policemen came to school. Her husband had gone to meet them, and was greeted. He's had a good report with the officer”, Olclay Demires says.

The police had told him they had some doubts about IDs, based on Demires' wife statements, and they had said they should take him to the police station.

“They signaled that they would arrest her in front of children”, she says with tears in her eyes. “will then forcibly insert it into the car”, broadcast TheExpress.

She hasn't seen her husband since that morning.

“As a mother, as a woman, I am deeply offended by this” situation, she says with tears in her eyes.

Feyza Gunkan's four children, who have lived in Kosovo together with her husband Hasan Huseyin Gunkan for 13 years, have also been without a father. Their youngest child is four years old.

The news of her husband's kidnapping, Feyza Gunkan, received it from her school phone. That was the first shock. Later, forwarding reports to Turkish and Albanian media, she soon learned that her husband had been kidnapped by mistake. A man with the same name was a real target. However, her husband continues to suffer in Turkey, awaiting trial,

Given some media reports, dozens of Turkish citizens have applied to Kosovo for asylum. Meanwhile, Mustafa Erdem's family, part of the Mehmet Akif college, reportedly left Kosovo a few months ago, and sought asylum in Germany.

Meanwhile early this month, officials in Prizren have denied that even a kindergarten has been closed, suspected of links to the Gylen movement.

“We continue to worry about what can happen” says Gunakan. We have a lot of doubts here “.

Meanwhile, Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj had tried to dispel their doubts and fears. Based on Yasemin Karabina's statement, Haradinaj had told them that “nothing like this would ever happen again”

After the kidnapping, Haradinaj had declared he had not been informed about the action. In the following days, he had fired Minister of Internal Affairs and Chief of Intelligence, and had later criticised Erdogan, saying that 6 citizens “had not infiltrated, but had been kidnapped”.

But unlike Haradinaj, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci had tried to justify the kidnapping, saying the detained men were involved in illegal shares and posed a risk to state security.

Whatever you call it, their families are deeply frustrated with how the kidnapping was allowed to occur.

“We cannot understand” says Jasemin Karabina. The “is unfortunate that Kosovo politicians are linked to that person in Turkey”.

The boy in Turkey,”, appeared unhappy with Haradinaj's comments. Erdogan, who has good reports with Thaci, had appeared very tough with Haradinaj.

My response is to the prime minister of Kosovo. On whose orders you took such actions”, Erdogan had said after the dismissal of the interior minister and the AKI chief.

“You will answer for this”, Erdogan had said.

Economic Power

But no matter what Kosovo leaders think of Erdogan's style of rule, Turkey may not be a friendly state that Kosovo can afford to lose. Compared to being a strong lawyer for international recognition of Kosovo and membership in the EU and NATO, Turkey also has a considerable economic impact on Kosovo. (It was one of the first countries to recognise Kosovo without declaring independence in February 2008.

According to Esin Muzbe, secretary-general of the Kosovo Economic Ode in Turkey, the Turkish state will be the third largest source of foreign direct investment in Kosovo.

Turkish companies run Kosovo's only international airport and electricity network in the country, and are building highways that cost billions of dollars. Various state agencies, meanwhile, have taken care of the restoration of the Ottoman-era heritage in Kosovo. Meanwhile, a large new mosque, also financed, is scheduled to be built in downtown Pristina in an Ottoman style.

But Erdogan had also made efforts to exert pressure in other ways as well. Several years ago, the Government of Kosovo revised history texts in Erdogan's pressure to more positively enhance Ottoman rule.

Meanwhile in 2016, while the coup effort in Turkey was under way, Gazeta Express reporter Berat Buzhala had written a satirical post in social media, calling on all Kosovars who rest in Turkey to support the coup. As a result, Buzhala, in a proposal for Haarez, has said Turkey's ambassador had called for his arrest.

But there are many Kosovars, however, who view Turkey as a very positive light. For example, Abdulhadi Krasniqi wants to promote common cultural ties between Kosovars and Turks.

About 20 thousand citizens in Kosovo are on Turkish ethnicity, and Krasniqi is the mayor of Mamsuza, the only Turkish-run municipality in Kosovo.

“Whoever is in power there, a strong Turkey can help Kosovo alone,” says Krasniqi.

Krasniqi also supports the arrests of six '%gynists. They were Turkish citizens linked to an organisation that tried to overthrow the Turkish elected government, he says, but does not think kidnappings and deportations were legally carried out.

Despite promises of support from Haradinaj and others, women and families of six kidnapped people from Kosovo still fear for their future.

The Kosovo prime minister's press office refused to respond to some requests for comment on this article, saying, “We consider this issue closed”.

The Erdogan regime is following us. His long arms are everywhere, especially in the Balkans, “says Ulus from the Mehmet Akif College. “They're not our friends. ”

But Ulus é, who proudly notes that schools associated with Gylen have been in Kosovo since the late 1990s . We're not going anywhere. We're here. We have come to serve “, he says.