On July 15, segments of the Turkish military tried to overthrow the government but the putsch was put down by loyal forces. However, as part of the crackdown, the authorities have carried out a massive crackdown, imprisoning thousands of suspects, who have included hundreds of foreign students.
One source whose relative was among the detained students stated that upon arrival at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, the Nigerian students were all escorted to a room and their passports confiscated by Turkish police. Most of the detained Nigerians are students at Fathi University, one of the private universities in Turkey.
Fathi University, which is located in the metropolitan Büyükçekmece district of Istanbul, was founded in 1996 with a relatively high rate of international students from 102 countries. It is among the 2099 schools, dormitories and universities shut down in the wake of the July 15 failed coup in Turkey.
“When they enquired why they were clamped in a dirty room, the police said they are students of a terrorist organisation. They offered to transfer them to government schools but on the condition that we will pay same fees as private universities,” the source added.
Turkish authorities said the schools and universities were terrorist schools because they have links with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, who the Turkish government had accused of being the mastermind of the coup. Turkey's ambassador to Nigeria Hakan Cakil, had requested the Nigerian authorities to close down 17 Turkish schools in Nigeria for alleged links to the Hizmet Movement.
However, the Nigerian authorities rejected the call, stating that it would rely on evidence linking the proprietors of the schools in Nigeria to the failed coup in Turkey. According to eyewitnesses, the Nigerian students in Turkey are also being fined and made to sign documents giving their consent to deportation.
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