Hundreds gather in Nairobi for Turkey's Democracy and National Unity Day

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Hundreds of Kenyans, including officials and ambassadors, gathered Saturday in Nairobi to celebrate and honor "martyrs" of a defeated coup in Turkey in 2016.

Guests for Turkey's Democracy and National Unity Day included Turkish graduates, members of parliament, senators, governors and their deputies.

Doctor Abdi Issa, a Turkish graduate and Deputy Governor of Isiolo County in Kenya was also present at the event.

Issa learned of the attack in Turkey by Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) while conducting complex surgery in a London operation room and was so shaken that he had to be replaced with another doctor.

“I was working in a very busy hospital in London in an emergency and almost at midnight I heard people chatting about something happening in my country, Turkey,” said Issa.

“They knew I was in London but trained in Turkey, I stopped and started investigating and I found that there was something very serious challenging the democracy of the very powerful nation of Turkey by a terrorist organization,” he said.

Issa went to a mosque and started to pray for the people of Turkey.

“Within two hours the people of Turkey came out in droves and numbers and stopped this coup against a democratically-elected country,” he said.

Issa said that he understood the pain that Turks who strongly defended their nation felt as even in Kenya, terrorists who plague the Horn of Africa region have conducted attacks, killing innocent people, including children.

- Failed coup, lesson on democracy

Issa said he would defend his country with his bare hands if terrorists stormed the parliament and took control of the nation’s national television.

He said after seeing what happened in Turkey, he would fight to protect his country from terrorists who were in tanks and armed to the teeth.

“Kenya was the first African country to condemn the coup in Turkey, as a Kenyan and someone who loves their country … if the army came to bomb our parliament -- those are terror activities, we will not accept, the population would wake up and they would fight with their bare hands to stop any kind of attack to the institution of democracy in our country,” he said.

Issa said the world learned a very important lesson on matters concerning democracy during the failed coup and noted that “the power elected by the people can never be taken by few elements who have terroristic tendencies. Democracy is a tradition for all countries to strive. It is a power of the people by the people, this is a lesson to us and the world in general that July 15 should never happen again in the history of the world.”

- Abolition of FETO-sponsored schools

Issa urged schools and institutions across Kenya and Africa that are supported by the FETO to be investigated and abolished.

“I think those organizations should be investigated and they should be checked and seen what curriculum and things they are doing so that they should not give a negative influence to other people who are very innocent. We are always against that, we want people to go to proper schools and learn democracy,” he said.

Turkish Ambassador to Kenya Ahmet Cemil Miroglu thanked Kenya for standing with Turkey during the attempted coup, noting that Turkey will never forget the show of solidarity it received from Kenya.

Miroglu said terror groups like FETO are hidden across Africa, disguised as schools and charities and he thanked African governments for investigating and closing those facilities.

“The organization which lost its backbone in Turkey has been trying to survive by making use of its structure abroad, thus fighting against the structures of FETO abroad has gained significance,” he said.

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) Nairobi coordinator Eyup Yavuz Umutlu who was at the event told Anadolu Agency that, “when we talked to people after the event they said that it was very informative for them and they said that it opened their eyes with this event”.

Turkish Maarif Foundation Kenya Director Adem Koc said that it had 359 educational institutions in 44 countries --19 in Africa -- with a total of 41,000 students.

“In many countries, hundreds of schools formally affiliated to FETO have been taken over by the government and handed over to the Maarif Foundation,” he said.

“In Africa particularly, such transfer has eliminated the lobbying of the FETO terror group which uses its schools as cover for its dangerous motives”.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.