Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu said the seven Turkish citizens were expelled not at the request of the Turkish authorities, but in connection with a criminal case that was started by the Security and Intelligence Service 20 years ago, concerning national security. The official made such statements in a press briefing after the parliamentary hearings staged by the commission on national security, defense and public order and the sub-commission on parliamentary control, IPN reports.

According to Andrian Candu, the case that involves the seven Turkish citizens, six of whom are employees of the Moldovan-Turkish lyceum “Orizont”, dates from 1998 and has no connection with the current government. Based on the investigations,18 persons, including the Turkish citizens, were declared undesirable.

The Speaker said the statistics of the past four-five years show that by 70 expulsions of the kind occur annually and the case of the Turkish citizens is not something unordinary. The SIS cooperates with the security services of a number of states, but this time the expulsion was made at the request of the Moldovan authorities, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Moldova.

Andrian Candu also spoke about the situation at Moldova’s embassies and consulates abroad. Protests were mounted in front of the embassies in the U.S., Canada and six European countries. Threats were formulated in some of the cases and the embassies had to stop work for several hours. Currently, the situation is under control. As to the speculations that the expulsion is related to the attempts to close the lyceum, the Speaker said that as long as Moldova’s legislation is respected, this will not happen.