Cevheri Güven-turkishminute
German authorities have taken action to deport a Turkish teacher, who applied for asylum in the country, to Turkey where he faces an arrest warrant due to his links to the Gülen movement, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup in 2016.The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch.
Mustafa Kaşka is one of the thousands of individuals who had to flee Turkey to avoid a massive crackdown the Turkish government launched on the Gülen movement followers in the aftermath of the failed coup. The teacher, who applied for asylum in Germany on Nov.25 but denied an asylum, was taken from a refugee camp in the German city of Giesen on Tuesday by police officers and taken to the Frankfurt Airport for deportation. The appeal process for the teacher’s denied asylum application is still under way.
Kaşka, who had a nervous breakdown as he was being taken to the plane, saying he would be arrested if he is sent back to Turkey, was taken down from the plane stairs and taken to a police station in Darmstadt.
The teacher was the director of a student dormitory in the western Turkish province of İzmir. The student dormitory, where he worked, was closed down due to its links to the Gülen movement following the coup attempt. Kaşkar, who began to work as a teacher at a private school in İzmir, was later fired from his job in 2018 based on an order from the İzmir Governor’s Office due to his ties to the Gülen movement.
The teacher told Turkish Minute over a phone interview in the police station in Darmstadt that being a director at a Gülen-linked organization is for the Turkish government tantamount to being a leader in a terrorist organization as the Turkish government describes the group as a terrorist organization.
Kaşkar said he fears to be tortured in Turkey where there are widespread claims and reports about maltreatment and torture of the inmates in prisons.
“I know that those, who are tried on charges of terrorist organization leadership, are subjected to torture. That’s why I went into hiding in Turkey and decided to flee. I looked for a way to flee for months. I had to remain in hiding for one-and-half years. Then, I could finally make my way to Greece by crossing the Evros River on a refugee boat on Sept. 23, 2019. I came to Germany on Nov. 25, 2019 and applied for an asylum,” Kaşkar told Turkish Minute.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) denied Kaşkar’s asylum application but the teacher appealed BAMF’s decision at a Germany court and the appeal process is still pending.
The teacher said he cannot understand why the German authorities are seeking to deport him when his appeal process is still in progress. He said BAMF’s denial of his asylum application was wrong in the first place, because he handed over all the necessary documents as well as a decision by a Turkish court showing an arrest warrant for him.
“I am just a teacher. I did not commit any crime. I don’t want to spend my life in prison due to my political views. I am calling on rights organizations and the public to raise their voices against my deportation and I expect BAMF to examine my asylum case again,” said the teacher.
According to a statement from Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Nov. 26, a total of 292,000 people have been detained while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the failed coup. The minister said there are currently 25,655 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed due to links to the Gülen movement.
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