Principal of Gülen-linked school, businessman abducted in Malaysia

Turgay Karaman, the principal of Time International School in Ipoh, Malaysia, was abducted by unidentified persons as he left his house for a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

According to a report submitted by Karaman’s lawyer to the Kuala Lumpur police on Tuesday, Karaman was abducted by five men while he was going to his car in the parking of his apartment.

Meanwhile, Ihsan Aslan, a Malaysia-based Turkish businessman sympathizer of Gülen movement was also abducted in a similar incident on Tuesday. A police report was prepared for his abduction, according to sources. Aslan is a member of Kuala Lumpur-based Malaysian Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and his cell was located at the Malaysia’s Ministry of Defence, according to his wife.

“These five men forced Mr. Turgay to get into one of their cars, a Nissan Almera, license plate number WQE 8216. The other car [used in the abduction and which followed the first car] is a Proton Gen-2 with plate number BFD 6198,” Karaman’s friend, who submitted the report to the police, wrote.

After Karaman failed to attend a meeting with the friend and a lawyer, the two went to his apartment as they were worried he might have been abducted since two other Turks who were sympathizers of the Gülen movement, which Turkish authorities accuse of being behind a failed coup last summer, were abducted by Turkish intelligence in Malaysia after the putsch.

Upon checking CCTV footage of the parking where his car was left, Karaman’s friends found that he was forced into a car by five unidentified men and taken to an unknown place.

“I request that the police investigate the kidnapping and notify the Immigration Department to stop any attempt to remove Mr. Turgay from Malaysia… I fear for my safety and am worried that this will happen to me and my other Turkish friends,” Karaman’s friend said, according to the report.

In October of last year, two Turkish citizens were extradited by Malaysian authorities upon a request from their Turkish counterparts as part of the latter’s clampdown against the movement after they were abducted by Turkish intelligence officers in Malaysia.

The Turkish Embassy is reported to have asked Malaysian authorities to close down Gülen-linked schools in the Asian country as in many other countries in late September. The Turkish ambassador reportedly asked authorities to take legal action against sympathizers of the Gülen movement as well.

Turkish government accuses the movement of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt, although the movement denies any involvement. The movement is known for its education and aid activities in over 170 countries, but Turkish Foreign Ministry bureaucrats have been trying to expand domestic pressure to overseas subsidiaries of the movement in the recent past. (Turkish Minute)