The government says it will summon intelligence chiefs for a grilling before parliament, as concern grows over the sudden detention and expulsion of a number of Turkish teachers.
Moldova’s Prime Minister, Pavel Filip, and the Speaker of Parliament, Andrian Candu, both members of the ruling Democratic Party, on Thursday summoned the heads of the country’s intelligence service for a hearing in parliament.
The government asked the Security and Intelligence Service, SIS, to provide further information on the case of the detention and expulsion of a number of Turkish nationals working for a private high-school chain linked to the Turkish exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.
“We have called for parliamentary hearings in the case of the expulsion from the country of seven foreign citizens. It is very important to make sure that human rights, national and international norms have been respected in this case,” Candu said.
On Friday, President Igor Dodon joined the initiative, and also asked for evidence from SIS, after earlier on Thursday accusing the media of double standards in the matter, referring to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Moldova over the poisonings in Salisbury, England.
However, some political analysts said the latest move was just smoke and mirrors, as the top Moldovan officials had long known about the Turkish regime’s demands for Moldova to hand over so-called Gulenists.
“Parliament and the government have asked SIS to justify its extradition decision? Just formal hearings? Since when has the SIS been acting on its own?”, analyst Igor Munteanu asked rhetorically on Facebook, stressing that SIS only acts on political orders.
In May 2017, on a visit to Chisinau, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim urged Moldova to close down the Horizont high-school network on account of its alleged links to the Gulen movement, which Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.
Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip did not agree to, or reject, the request back then.
“If there is evidence, of course, we expect Turkish experts to come and contact our Intelligence and Security Service or the Interior Ministry, so we can address this issue legally,” Filip said on May 5, 2017, in Chisinau.
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