Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
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Last year, Turkey's ambassador to Nigeria insisted that the country close all 17 of its Gulen schools. President Erdogan is said to have expressed criticism of the schools while in Africa, traveling in Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. He also discussed the schools when he met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
"I told him that he should show us a new path to keeping the schools open if there was something wrong with them," Desalegn told AP.
It has yet to be confirmed that pressure from Turkey led to the sale of the schools. But the fact remains that Turkey wields great influence in Ethiopia. The country has seen double-digit economic growth over the last several years and "that has led to a lot of Turkish investment," says Ludger Schadomsky, head of Deutsche Welle's Amharic Services. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, some 150 Turkish companies, employing 30,000 people, are active in Ethiopia. The Ministry's website claims that Turkey has invested more than $2.5 billion dollars in the country on the Horn of Africa. That cooperation extends to other sectors as well: "The countries have also had an agreement on military cooperation since 2013," says Schadomsky.
The schools themselves are said to have been bought by a group of German investors, but that claim has not been substantiated. And there are no further details about the investors. A Deutsche Welle interview request submitted to school administrators went unanswered. The German embassy also declined to answer AP questions about the sale of the schools.
Gulen schools in Ethiopia sold | Africa | DW.COM | 04.03.2017
I would like to know who bought them.
"I told him that he should show us a new path to keeping the schools open if there was something wrong with them," Desalegn told AP.
It has yet to be confirmed that pressure from Turkey led to the sale of the schools. But the fact remains that Turkey wields great influence in Ethiopia. The country has seen double-digit economic growth over the last several years and "that has led to a lot of Turkish investment," says Ludger Schadomsky, head of Deutsche Welle's Amharic Services. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, some 150 Turkish companies, employing 30,000 people, are active in Ethiopia. The Ministry's website claims that Turkey has invested more than $2.5 billion dollars in the country on the Horn of Africa. That cooperation extends to other sectors as well: "The countries have also had an agreement on military cooperation since 2013," says Schadomsky.
The schools themselves are said to have been bought by a group of German investors, but that claim has not been substantiated. And there are no further details about the investors. A Deutsche Welle interview request submitted to school administrators went unanswered. The German embassy also declined to answer AP questions about the sale of the schools.
Gulen schools in Ethiopia sold | Africa | DW.COM | 04.03.2017
I would like to know who bought them.
