- Delegation’s visit marks new front in Erdogan government’s campaign against Gulen following failed coup
Wall Street Journal
SAEED SHAH
A high-ranking Turkish delegation arriving in Pakistan on Monday night is hoping to score another victory in Ankara’s expanding campaign against a U.S.-based imam that the Turkish government accuses of masterminding the failed coup two weeks ago.
Pakistani officials say they will accede to the delegation’s demand to move against a well-regarded chain of schools run by people Ankara characterize as supporters of Fethullah Gulen—despite the insistence by directors of the schools that they had no ties to the Turkish imam—because Ankara has framed the issue as a test of bilateral relations.
Since the failed July 15 coup that left 271 people dead, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Mr. Gulen of orchestrating the violence, which the imam denies. He and his supporters say the charges are part of a campaign of repression that started when Mr. Gulen broke off his political alliance with Mr. Erdogan in 2013.
Schools linked to Mr. Gulen operate in dozens of countries, including the U.S. Recently, Turkey has stepped up diplomatic pressure to get those schools closed, although it has had mixed success.
Pakistan and Turkey have enjoyed close relations since Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party came to power in the early 2000s. Mr. Sharif has spoken of his friendship and admiration for Mr. Erdogan. Like Turkey, Pakistan has struggled to entrench democracy against a domineering, coup-prone, military.
PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, set up in 1995 by Turkish businessmen, is a Pakistani not-for-profit organization. Its 26 fee-based schools educate some 10,000 children and have a reputation for quality education and moderate religious views.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif praised the schools in a speech in late 2013, in the presence of the visiting Mr. Erdogan—a diplomatic faux pas, as Mr. Gulen had already fallen out of favor with the Turkish leader.
The atmosphere will be markedly different on Tuesday, when Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz.
Pakistani officials say they are examining laws for regulating nonprofit groups that could be used by interior and finance ministries as one way to enforce changes at the schools. Provincial governments, which have responsibility for schooling, could also take action, they said.
The goal will be removing the current management of the schools, while keeping the institutions open, they said.
“Turkey is a very close and very good friend of Pakistan, and we have brotherly relations. So we understand their concerns,” said Nafees Zakaria, the spokesman of the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Zakaria says one option being considered would be to transfer administration of the schools to a new entity proposed by the Turkish government.
Directors at the schools say they will fight any attempt to take over the schools.
Alamgir Khan, a Pakistani businessman who is one of the five directors of the PakTurk schools, said the schools weren’t political and haven’t broken any laws.
“The schools have come out of a system inspired by Gulen’s teachings but they have no link to Gulen,” said Mr. Khan. “The schools operate under the rules and regulations of Pakistan. The resources are our own. It should be the laws of Pakistan, not the laws of Turkey, that prevail here.”
Unlike the country’s elite private schools, the schools run by his group were aimed at helping middle class families, he said.
The Turkish government also is demanding that Pakistan close a think tank called the Rumi Forum, a Gulen-inspired group that organizes talks in Pakistan.
The Rumi Forum, established a decade ago for what it calls intercultural dialogue, is headed by a Turkish translator and editor based in Islamabad, Suat Erguvan. It says it isn’t related to organization of the same name in Washington where Mr. Gulen is the honorary chairman.
“We don’t want to become a political snack,” said Mr. Erguvan, adding that his offices had been visited by Pakistani intelligence agents in recent days. “Mr. Gulen is an inspiration, but we do not report to him, he gets no royalties from us, he has no place on our board of directors.”
