The government is concerned that there are about 300 students in Turkey, who receive scholarship from PASIAD Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities Lalu Muhammad Iqbal said here Monday.
"We have made them aware through the Indonesian Students Association, as well as direct communication by the embassy, to stay away from the foundation and its people, who are either personally or politically affiliated with Fethullah Gulen," he noted. Gulen has been accused of masterminding the failed coup detat on July 15.
The government has even offered accommodation to the students at the Indonesian Embassy in Ankara or the General Consulate in Istanbul as a temporary safe house if any emergency occurs, Iqbal added.
"Internally, we have discussed it with the related ministries to create some scenarios to protect them and save their education if something untoward happened," he said.
The Turkish government released an announcement wired by its embassies throughout the world that asked their counterpart governments to shut down any schools in the country that are believed to have connections with what it considered a terrorist organization or affiliated with Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish Embassy in Indonesia had asked the government to shut down nine schools, namely Pribadi Bilingual Boarding Schools in Depok and Bandung, West Java, Kharisma Bangsa Bilingual Boarding School in Tangerang Selatan, Banten, Semesta Bilingual Boarding School in Semarang, Central Java, and Kesatuan Bangsa Billingual Boarding School in Yogyakarta in Central (Java), in addition to Sragen Bilingual Boarding School in Stagen, Central Java, Faiths School in Aceh, and Banua Bilingual Boarding Schools in Aceh and South Kalimantan.
The Turkish government has also asked that activities of the Gulen Chair within the complex of the State Islam University in Ciputat, Tangerang Selatan, Banten, be stopped.
The Indonesian government has never meddled in the domestic affairs of other countries and it came to know of the Turkish demand from the official website of the countrys embassy, the foreign affairs ministrys spokesperson, Arrmanatha Nasir, clarified.
All schools in Indonesia are under Indonesian law and regulation, therefore the foreign ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Education and Culture to get the correct information based on the list given by the Turkish Embassy.
Besides Indonesia, the Turkish government has also called for similar action by the governments in Jordan, Azerbaijan, Somalia and Nigeria.
(T.A060/INE)
Edited by INE.
Reporter: Azizah Fitriyanti
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
