The National Resistance Movement ACUM considers the arrest and expulsion of seven Turkish citizens – teachers and employees of “Orizont” lyceums - are a very serious abuse committed by the Dodon-Plahotniuc authoritarian regime in exchange for the relations with Erdoğan – the repair of the Presidential Building, the visit by Erdoğan and other favors. Representatives of the Movement on September 6 staged a protest at the Chisinau International Airport so as to attract the national and international community’s attention to the illegal kidnappings of people, IPN reports.
Sergiu Litvinenko, a member of the National Standing Bureau of the Party “Action and Solidarity” (PAS), said the current regime in Turkey is authoritarian and those persons will not have the elementary right to defense. This expulsion represents conviction to life detention in the best case as those persons could be tortured or even killed. “We should realize what the stake is when these two individuals convict seven persons to life detention. The stake is absolutely amazing. Dodon wants the Presidential Building to be repaired and furniture to be bought for this so that he could move to the Building on October 1. Plahotniuc a probably wants the National Arena to be built. The stakes cannot be actually compared with the life of a person,” stated Sergiu Litvinenko.
PAS secretary Igor Grosu, who held the post of deputy minister of education, said the first attempts to close the “Orizont” branches were made in 2013. Being also responsible for international relations at the Ministry of Education, he reminds that a letter from Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs came and this made reference to a letter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey that asked then in a veiled form to close the branches of that lyceum. It is an agreement between two regimes – the regime of Erdoğan and the regime of Plahotniuc.
“They do not care about the people’s safety. They do not care what the young people who saw how their teachers were expelled believe and what the impact of these actions will be in the future. What is important for them is to mobilize the presidential staff and to build what they need to build, according to the own agreements,” said the vice president of the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” Inga Grigoriu.
Jurist Ion Mazur, who is a member of the PAS, said the extradition cannot be made in the absence of a court decision. As the extradition occurred, a conviction sentence will be definitely given by the ECHR.
Seven foreign citizens among whom were persons from the administration of “Orizont” Lyceums were declared undesirable by the competent bodies and expelled from Moldova. The Security and Intelligence Service said the seven foreigners are suspected of having ties with an Islamic group that purportedly performs illegal activities in a number of states.
A teacher of the lyceum, who insisted on anonymity, has told IPN that seven persons among whom was the vice director general of “Orizont” Lyceum, the director of the branch in Durlești town, the director of the branch in Ceadâr-Lunga town and a teacher, were taken from near their houses in the morning of September 6. A minor was also arrested, but was later set free. It is not known where these persons are. They asked for political asylum in the Republic of Moldova in spring and were to get an answer in October. Therefore, the expulsion is not fully correct from legal viewpoint.
