Dr. Ahmet T. Kuru, a prominent Turkish-American academic and critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said he was harassed by policemen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and would have been arrested and deported to Turkey had he not reached out to his friends in the Malaysian government.
Kuru, a professor at San Diego State University, was in Malaysia for the launch of the Malay translation of his book, “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison,” but faced unexpected challenges, which he attributed to the workings of the Turkish Embassy in Malaysia.
Kuru recounted the details of his ordeal on Facebook on Thursday.
First, the event, scheduled at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), was abruptly cancelled. The situation escalated following Kuru’s talk at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, the publisher of the translation of Kuru’s book, was interrogated by the police there. According to Kuru, police did not stop stalking and harassing him throughout his time in Malaysia.
At Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuru alleged that individuals claiming to be police officers attempted to confiscate his passport, citing accusations from the Turkish Embassy labeling him as “a terrorist.”
Kuru said he reached out to the US Embassy for help but couldn’t get any assistance.
The Islamic Renaissance Front, the publisher of Kuru’s book chaired by Dr. Musa, strongly condemned these actions, emphasizing the need for Malaysia to protect intellectual discourse and prevent political intimidation.
Professor Kuru’s experiences in Malaysia mirror past incidents involving other intellectuals and critics, notably the detention of Mustafa Akyol, another guest of the Islamic Renaissance Front.
Since a coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016, the government of President Erdoğan has employed extralegal methods to secure the return of its critics after its official extradition requests were denied.
In a joint letter UN rapporteurs accused the Turkish government of engaging in the systematic practice of state-sponsored extraterritorial abductions and forcible returns to Turkey, with at least 100 Turkish nationals renditioned from multiple states to Turkey.
Turkey’s efforts at transnational repression against critics abroad do not seem to be winding down. Most recently, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has renditioned two men from Algeria as part of its international abduction campaign against alleged members of the faith-based Gülen movement.
Mustafa Tan and Mustafa Bircan were handed over to the Ankara police after their rendition.
The two are accused of organizing the movement’s presence in the North African country and being in contact with high-level members based in the US, according to the report.
Turkey is often identified as a major perpetrator in reports related to transnational repression, a concept used to describe autocratic governments’ diplomatic or extrajudicial attempts at harassing, intimidating, abducting or silencing critics living in foreign countries.
A Freedom House report published earlier this year found that Turkey was behind 132 incidents of direct and physical transnational repression between 2014 and the publication date, describing the country as the world’s second most prolific perpetrator.
The Gülen movement is the highest priority of Ankara’s campaign, with more than 1,000 abductions confirmed and acknowledged in MİT’s 2022 annual report.
Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the 2013 corruption investigations, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
In several of these cases the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the arrest, detention and forced transfer to Turkey of Turkish nationals were arbitrary and in violation of international human rights norms and standards.