Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said in January that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had raised concerns about the Ethiopian schools on a visit to Addis Ababa.
By Elias Meseret (Associated Press) |
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA–A network of Ethiopian schools linked to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of masterminding a failed coup attempt last year, is changing ownership.
The sale of the Nejashi Ethio-Turkish International Schools follows pressure from the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is urging countries that host institutions inspired by Gulen to close or take them over.
The sale of the school network to a group of educators from Germany was a “business decision,” Cecil Aydin, a coordinator at the schools in Ethiopia, said this week.
Aydin did not identify the new owners. The German embassy declined to comment.
Ethiopia previously said the schools, which currently enroll nearly 2,000 students, many from elite Ethiopian families, would be handed over to a foundation backed by the Turkish government.
Erdogan raised his concerns about the global network of schools linked to Gulen during a trip to Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar in January.
Turkey accuses schools inspired by Gulen of providing militant recruits for his movement, which in turn says an increasingly authoritarian government is casting as wide a net as possible for perceived opponents. Gulen, who is based in Pennsylvania, has denied that he engineered the botched uprising.
Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, said in January that Erdogan had raised concerns about the schools on a visit to Addis Ababa.
“I told him that if there is something wrong with the establishment of the schools, then he should give us a way out how to keep the schools running,” Hailemariam Desalegn said.
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See also:
- Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci to Visit Ethiopia
- FETÖ-linked Schools in Ethiopia to Be Handed over to Turkish Maarif Foundation
- Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) Donates to Mekelle University Students with Special Needs