Diyarbakir organizations, schools closed down for suspected link to coup attempt

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- As part of the Turkish government’s crackdown on suspected members and organizations of this month’s coup attempt, at least 19 schools and 35 organizations are reported to have been closed in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

According to Rudaw correspondent in Diyarbakir, Mashala Dakak, since the announcement of the state of emergency in Turkey by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, the police have raided many schools and offices of many organizations in and around Diyarbakir.

The organizations are accused and suspected of connection with the Fethullah Gulen movement, which Erdogan has blamed for staging the failed coup attempt to depose him.

Erdogan said in a speech over the weekend that 13,000 people have been arrested in connection to the coup attempt.

Activists and foreign observers however, believe the number is in the tens of thousands that include military personnel, judges, teachers and government employees.

The crackdowns are interpreted as Erdogan’s own attempt for absolute control of the state.

Kurdish activists and civil society organizations have been subject to police raids and arrests in the past. This time however, the target in Kurdish areas such as Diyarbakir seems focused on organizations and personnel linked to Gulen’s Hizmet movement.

Both president Erdogan and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu have insisted that the United States must extradite Gulen to be tried for orchestrating the coup.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara has sent an official request to Washington for Gulen’s extradition.

“We have sent four dossiers to the United States for the extradition of the terrorist chief,” he told a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to Turkey’s Anadolu agency.

The US State Department’s deputy spokesman Mark Toner confirmed that Turkey had sent materials “which we are in the process of analyzing,” in order to ascertain if Turkey’s claims about Gulen are true.