“The ministry will determine the management issue of Gulen schools in the Kurdistan Region,” Pishtiwan Sadiq, the Minister of Education, said in a press conference on Thursday.
“We cannot allow an organization to be involved in education in the Kurdistan Region if it has been listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey,” Sadiq added.
The KRG’s spokesperson, Safeen Dizayee, told Rudaw in early August, “The Gulen schools will be under the Ministry of Education’s authority.”
“As the ministry announced some days ago, we won’t close down the schools, but will put them under the authority of the education ministry. And in this case we promise the students and their parents this won’t have much impact on the students,” Dizayee added.
After Turkey’s failed coup attempt in mid-July, and as the Turkish government has accused Gulen members and supporters of being behind the failed coup, Turkish authorities closed down all schools with ties to Gulen in Turkey and asked the KRG to do the same.
Kurdistan Region President, Masoud Barzani, during his official visit to Turkey last week, mentioned that the Gulen schools in Kurdistan been discussed in his meetings with Turkish officials, and he agreed to solve the issue.
“Another issue was the Gulen schools in Kurdistan and we agreed on how to resolve this issue in a way that will not harm the students of the Kurdistan Region,” said Barzani in a brief press conference in Ankara on August 24.
High level officials managing the Gulen schools said that they have been working in the Kurdistan Region for 22 years and have 15,000 students.
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