Afghan officials detain Turkish teachers 'linked to Gulen' – report

One Afghan and three Turkish teachers linked to an organization regarded with suspicion by the Turkish government were detained by Afghan intelligence officials on Tuesday, according to the head of Afghan Turk CAG Educational NGO. The move against ATCE, the body that runs the schools, appeared to be part of a Turkish campaign against followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric it accuses of being behind a coup attempt in July 2016, Reuters said. ATCE says it is an independent organization which runs schools in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat, and has been in Afghanistan since 1995. Numan Erdogan, the chairman of ATCE, said the men who detained the teachers presented themselves as members of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency. President Ashraf Ghani was on his way to Istanbul on Tuesday to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Summit.