MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Educational institutions associated with a movement of Fethullah Gulen were on Sunday handed over to Turkish aid agency.
The Turkish Maarif Foundation has formally taken in charge of Turkish Schools in Somalia.
According to Russian owned TV, the government of Ankara has changed the administrators of the schools.
“The schools, with up to one thousand Somali students, have now been transferred to the new administrators,” the station reported.
Somali deputy Minister for Education, Faisal Omar Guleid who spoke at the handing over ceremony in Mogadishu has welcomed the move saying the agency will improve the education by providing good quality education.
“Maarif provides excellent, good quality education for Somali students. Somali parents are very happy with these opportunities offered to their children,” Mr. Guled.
The Turkish government set up Maarif Foundation in 2016 with an aim to administer overseas schools linked to the Fethullah Organisation which Turkish government designated as a terrorist group.
Mr. Fethullah Gulen, a 77-year-old imam, the founder of Gulen Movement left Turkey for the United States in 1999 and has been living in self-imposed exile in America since then.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused him of being the mastermind behind the 2016 failed coup where more than 200 people were killed, a charge Mr. Gulen has denied.
Since the coup, the Turkey government has gone after Gulen-linked schools across the world.
Somalia has since shut down the schools manned by Fethullah Organisation.
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