A Kyrgyz math teacher who traveled to Turkey last week for a student competition has not been heard from since Turkish border authorities reportedly detained him at İstanbul Airport, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service.
The incident has raised fresh concerns about transnational repression targeting educators once affiliated with the Gülen movement, even after their schools were handed over to the Turkish state-backed Maarif Foundation.
The Turkish government has declared the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, to be a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies any involvement in terrorism.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since corruption investigations revealed in December 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and 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 pursue its members. He intensified the crackdown following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement denied involvement in the abortive putsch.
Following the failed coup, the Turkish government shut down 1,069 privately run schools and 15 universities due to their affiliation with the Gülen movement.
The Maarif Foundation, which was established prior to the coup attempt through legislation in the Turkish Parliament, has vigorously pursued the transfer to its control of Gülen-linked educational institutions around the world.
The teacher, Azamat Nurmat Uulu, works at Hussain Karasev High School in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan — one of many schools formerly operated by the Gülen-affiliated Sapat educational network before being transferred to the Maarif Foundation. On April 20, he accompanied six students to an international math olympiad in Antalya, reportedly organized through the Zeen Education Center in Bishkek. Upon arrival at İstanbul Airport, he was detained by border officers. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Nurmat Uulu’s wife, Irzwan Pakhridin Kyzy, and mother, Gulsara Shamurzaeva, told RFE/RL they have contacted Kyrgyz authorities, including the embassy in Turkey and domestic law enforcement but have received no information about his condition or location. They are publicly appealing for government assistance.
His colleagues at the high school also expressed alarm. Aidana Dyuyshonbieva, a fellow teacher, said the school community is in distress, unable to continue working as usual due to the uncertainty. She said three of the six students on the trip were from Nurmat Uulu’s homeroom class and that they have repeatedly asked about his whereabouts.
“Our colleague Azamat took six students to the competition. Since losing contact with him, our staff has been very anxious. The students are also worried and keep asking where he is. We are asking the Kyrgyz government to find our citizen and help bring him home safely,” Dyuyshonbieva said, as quoted by RFE/RL.
Nurmat Uulu has worked at the school for the past eight years and is himself a graduate of the Ishak Razzakov High School in Kyzyl-Kiya, which was also formerly part of the Gülen-linked Sapat network. He holds a mathematics degree from Gaziantep University in Turkey.
The Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it is working to verify details of the case.
The Sapat network (formerly known as Sebat) had operated schools across Kyrgyzstan since 1992. In December 2024 the entire network was officially transferred to the Turkish Maarif Foundation.
Following years of pressure from Ankara, Kyrgyz authorities agreed to the transfer despite public statements in the past asserting that the schools posed no security threat. When the transfer took place, Sapat administrators issued a statement saying they would challenge the move using both domestic and international legal mechanisms.
The Kyrgyz Ministry of Education and Science announced at the time of the transfer that existing teaching staff and student enrollment would remain unchanged under the new Maarif management.
A source familiar with the school’s operations, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Turkish Minute that the teacher likely traveled to Turkey for a math contest that had been organized before the school was transferred to the Maarif Foundation.
The source noted that the teacher had no involvement with organizing such events and that participation in contests has continued under long-established routines from the Sapat era.
According to the source, the school’s internal affairs and inter-school activities are still largely managed by local staff, with the new administration from Maarif mostly observing rather than intervening.
The source added that the teacher may have been flagged by Turkish authorities due to past affiliations, possibly from his time studying in Turkey and staying in Gülen movement-linked housing.
The Maarif Foundation is directly funded and overseen by the Turkish Ministry of Education and has been active in taking over former Gülen-affiliated schools in dozens of countries. It opened its first school in Bishkek in 2021.
The Nurmat Uulu case follows a troubling precedent. In 2021 Orhan İnandı, the head of Sapat, was abducted from Kyrgyzstan and flown to Turkey, where he was tried and imprisoned. That case was widely condemned by human rights groups as a blatant example of extraterritorial abduction.
İnandı said he was tortured for 37 days in Turkish custody.
He claims he was beaten during his abduction, flown to Turkey on a private jet, stripped, confined in a soundproof room and repeatedly interrogated under threats and physical abuse.
İnandı said he was given electric shocks, forcibly fed, denied access to a toilet and threatened with death and harm to his daughter if he did not cooperate. He was asked to spy on Gülen movement followers and questioned about opposition politicians.
Nurmat Uulu’s apparent detention now raises fears that Ankara’s campaign against perceived Gülenists continues to target individuals even after host countries have conceded to Turkey’s demands to rebrand or transfer institutions once associated with the movement.