Eight families from Turkey with state protection in Kosovo

According to some data from the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs, they are among over 130 people from Turkey who have been granted refugee status since 2018.

According to lawyers, all of them have been linked to Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen's “Movement “has been accused of orchestrating an effort for pimps in Turkey in 2016.

Free Europe Radio has talked to one of the persons who have gained refugee status in Kosovo, and he has confirmed that he is politically pursued in his state.

He has not wanted to talk more about this issue and has declined to be identified, saying that in Kosovo “does not feel secure”.

In March 2018, Kosovo has arrested and deported six Turkish citizens who have worked at the private school “Mehmet Akif” in Pristina.

Ankara has said they are suspected of links to Gulen's <x0->Hizmet”, which Turkey refers to by acronym FETO.

Their deportation has reportedly been done through a co-ordinated action between intelligence services from Turkey and Kosovo.

Arrests and deportations have preceded revocation of their Kosovo residence permits.

All those arrested, meanwhile, have faced court processes in Turkey, and have ultimately been sentenced to 56 years and 7 and a half months in prison.

Their arrest and deportation are subject to investigation in Kosovo's Special Prosecutor, after allegedly the process has been forwarded with dozens of violations.

MPB: Additional applications are under consideration

Kosovo's Ministry of Interior Affairs has told Radio Free Europe that foreign citizens gain the right to refugee status in Kosovo under the Law for Asylum, as well as international conventions.

“Most of them [Turkish citizens] are employed in institutions. Also, they own private businesses”, said the MPB response, without specifying which institutions they are working on.

According to official data, in 2020, Kosovo has accepted 28 applications for refugee status from Turkish citizens, in 2019 - 27 and in 2018 - 76.

According to Radio Free Europe information, some of these people have been declared supporters of Fetullah Gulen's movement, which now lives in exile in the United States.

“In front of migration police, they have said they are gylenists”, an official from MPB said, referring to supporters of the “Hizmet”.

The Republic of Kosovo gives refugee status to foreign citizens or persons without citizenship, at its request, if they meet the criteria.

Under the Law for Asylum, the refugee is the person who, because of the well - founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political conviction or belonging to a certain social group, is outside the country of citizenship and is unable, or because of such fear has no desire, to gain the protection of that country.

But by law, the refugee may be the person without citizenship, who, being outside the site of his former regular residence, for the same reasons as mentioned above, cannot, or because of such fear, has no desire to return to that country.

The Kosovo Interior Ministry, based on law, issues refugee status and residence permits to beneficiaries once such status is recognised, which is worth at least three years, with the possibility of continuing.

Under the law, such status could be changed if the compelling reasons for state security or public order require otherwise.

Officials from MPB have said they still have applications that are under way.

Kosovo lawyer Leotrim Syla, who has helped and legally assist citizens from Turkey, has told Radio Free Europe that since 2018 so far, has helped and advised over 150 Turkish citizens about refugee status procedures.

It's a common denominator for these people. The denominator is that these people have been members, members... or, in any other way, have been linked to the Gulen movement, which in Turkey is treated as a terrorist organisation. As a result, they too would be persecuted as hundreds of thousands [of other members] in Turkey”, Syla has said.

From the Council for Protection of Freedoms and Human Rights in Pristina have said that persons from Turkey who have gained refugee status in Kosovo must feel secure.

They're safe. They can make a mistake, only if they misuse the housing Kosovo gives them, and then move, whether in Montenegro, whether in Serbia or Albania, and, on the way, they can capture and extradite or condemn”, KMLDNJ Director Behxhet Shala has said.

Otherwise, they have no danger here. Most of them either work somewhere or have family members and have made the family union”, he added.

Citizens from Turkey, who have won refugee status in Kosovo, live in private homes and, from time to time, are monitored by law authorities.

Some politicians from the Turkish community in Kosovo, mainly from the Democratic Party of Turks, have called on Kosovo institutions to declare Gulen's movement terrorist, but this has not been done.

Ankara has declared the movement “Hizmet” in May 2016, accusing its supporters of trying to overthrow the Turkish government.

Gulen has been an ally of Turkey's current president, Recep Tayip Erdogan, until 2013.

At the time, police and prosecutors who are seen as supporters of Gulen have opened investigations of corruption in Erdogan's narrow circle.

Erdogan has said Gulen has conspired to overthrow his government in 2016 by building a network of supporters in the media, judiciary and education that would rise up against him. Gulen has dismissed these charges.

Since the failed stamp, Turkish authorities have arrested thousands of people, under suspicion of having ties to Gulen.