Cabuk of Turkish Schools in Georgia Arrested- EXCLUSIVE Comments from His Wife
Mustafa Emre Cabuk, Power Attorney of the Founding Partners for Turkish Schools in Georgia, former manager of Demirel College, was arrested in Tbilisi on May 24, following an accusation from the Turkish authorities that he is connected to the FETÖ terrorist organization.
The Demirel Private College is associated with the name of Fetullah Gulen, who was accused of organizing a military coup in Turkey, in July 2016.
Cabuk allegedly assisted one of the school founders to sell school shares to a US organization which, in turn, is reportedly linked with Fetullah Gulen.
Tbilisi Civil Court sentenced Mustafa Cabuk to three month’s extradition imprisonment, despite the requested GEL 10,000 bail by his lawyers.
Cabuk’s family, his wife Tuba Cabuk, denies the accusations and asks the Georgian authorities not to proceed with the extradition of her husband.
In an interview with Rustavi 2, she claimed there is absolutely no proof of Cabuk’s links with Gulen’s terrorist organization. “He must not be exiled to Turkey, people are tortured in Turkish prisons, and everyone knows that,” she said.
“I’ve never been sentenced either in Turkey or in Georgia. I had never even carried a small knife in my life. I ask the Georgian side not to make my extradition to Turkey,” Mustafa Cabuk said at the hearing.
In an exclusive interview with GEORGIA TODAY, Tuba Cabuk told us how her husband was arrested in the morning, shortly after sending their children to the Georgian school where they study.
The police clarified that Mustafa Cabuk is accused of committing a crime under Turkish, not Georgian, legislation.
The accusations, Tuba Cabuk says, are so absurd, that even repeating them is shocking for her. “They say my husband was a member of a terrorist organization behind the school, as he was a power attorney of the ‘Founding Partners of Turkish Schools in Georgia’.
If there were any preconditions to the arrest of her husband, Tuba Cabuk tells us, then it’s related to the dictatorship in Turkey which has emerged in the country in the last years. “We’ve lived in Georgia for 15 years; we are teachers, serving this country. In general, it’s all related to the Batumi school closing earlier, and then to the arrest of my husband, which as announced was a request from the Turkish authorities to the Georgian government. I’m heartbroken that no one recalls the efforts my husband has made for Georgia, numerous social activities…. In August 2008 we were on a vacation in Turkey and our family came back to Georgia to be with the Georgian people. During the Tbilisi flood, we were helping Tbilisi municipality as much as we could. The school my husband founded in Marneuli is a cradle of Georgian language for the Azerbaijani population there. There are so many projects and activities that could be noted as his initiatives to raise educated children in our schools,” she said.
Mustafa Cabuk’s wife says she has received no official comments from the Georgian authorities, yet says she remains hopeful that the Georgian government will review the case and be convinced that her husband is not guilty, and that no extradition to Turkey will take place, “where no one knows what will happen to him,” she states. “We’re hoping for a fair decision from the Georgian court”.
Nino Gugunishvili