Foreign Ministry confirms detention of Kyrgyz teacher in Turkey

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Azamat Nurmat uulu, a mathematics teacher at the Kuseyn Karasayev lyceum in Issyk-Kul region, a branch of Maarif Foundation (formerly Sapat), has been detained in Turkey.

The ministry said that the Consulate General of Kyrgyzstan in Istanbul is cooperating with the competent authorities of Turkey to provide assistance to the citizen and clarify the circumstances and reasons for the detention.

«This issue is under the control of the ministry and the foreign institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic in Turkey. We are in constant contact with the close relatives of the detained citizen,» the official statement says.

As Azattyk reports, citing Azamat Nurmat uulu’s relatives, he was detained by border guards at the Istanbul airport on April 20, when he was taking six of his students to the International Mathematical Olympiad in Antalya. Since then, 32-year-old Azamat Nurmat uulu has not been reachable. Meanwhile, students are participating in the Olympiad without their teacher.

Azamat Nurmat uulu has been working at the international educational institution Maarif for eight years. In 2010, he also graduated from the Iskhak Razzakov lyceum in Kyzyl-Kiya, affiliated with Sapat. He graduated from the Mathematics Department of Gaziantep University in Turkey.

On December 31, 2024, it was reported that Sapat educational institution in Kyrgyzstan was transferred to the Turkish Maarif Foundation. On January 1, Sapat stated that the transfer of lyceums to the Turkish Maarif Foundation was a violation and that it «will take measures to protect its rights based on the law and in accordance with the requirements of international law.»

The Ministry of Education and Science reported that teachers and educators at Sapat will continue to work as before, and students will continue to receive education based on previously concluded agreements with educational organizations.

The Maarif Foundation (Türkiye Maarif Vakfı) under the Turkish Ministry of Education was established in 2016. The organization opened the foundation’s first school in Bishkek in 2021.

In 2016, Turkish authorities demanded from Kyrgyzstan to close educational institutions allegedly associated with religious figure Fethullah Gülen. Relations between the two countries cooled after official Bishkek said that Turkish lyceums did not pose a threat to the country.

In 2017, Sebat educational institutions, which had been operating in the Kyrgyz Republic since 1992, were renamed to Sapat by decision of the authorities. Their leader, Orhan Inandi, was kidnapped from Kyrgyzstan in 2021 and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to a long prison term.