The Education Quality Development Centre of Georgia, an agency of the Ministry of Education, revoked on 3 February the authority to teach of the Şahin Friendship School, a school linked to Turkish political figure Fethullah Gülen.
The school has continued to operate without official authority, however as soon as notice of the decision is officially sent to them, 340 pupils will be left without a school.
The Şahin Friendship School opened in Batumi, a city on Black Sea coast in western Georgia, in 1994. The Education Quality Development Centre has proposed that pupils continue their studies in other schools in Batumi.
The official reason given for the decision to suspend the authority of school was that six non-Georgian pupils were transferred from Turkish medium classes to Georgian medium ones.
Batumelebiquoted one employee of the school as saying that last year, the Education Ministry demanded that the school abolish it’s Turkish medium education programme entirely, which they did.
‘85 pupils left the school, while several others were transferred to Georgian medium classes, and they claim that these few pupils created problems for the other 350.’ The employee said, adding that the school doesn’t have any financial problems.
According to a statement published on the Education Ministry’s website, Deputy Education Minister Lia Gigauri met with the Ambassador of Turkey in Georgia, Zeki Levent Gümrükçü a few days before the decision was announced.
‘Parties expressed satisfaction about the cooperation between Turkey and Georgia in education and underlined the necessity to deepen this cooperation’, the statement reads.
The press-office of the Turkish Embassy told OC Media that the ambassador will not comment on the issue of the Şahin school.
‘This issue is a domestic issue for Georgia, and so appropriate bodies in Georgia make decisions. Accordingly, since it is a domestic issue, the ambassador doesn’t consider it necessary to comment’, the spokesperson said.
The school’s principal, Elguja Davitadze, issued a statement claiming that the pupils were transferred to Georgian medium education at the request of the Education Ministry.
He wrote that Georgian legislation does not regulate the medium of education in the country, and therefore the decision to suspend the authority of the school was illegal.
‘We suspect that this decision was part of a deliberate policy to restrict and prohibit the Şahin School in Georgia’, the statement reads.
After the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, Yasin Temizkan, the Turkish Consul in Batumi, told TV 25 that the Şahin School ‘raises terrorists’.
He later denied saying this, claiming that the interpreter had made a mistake while interpreting into Georgian, and that he did not say anything like this.
Şahin School is on of a chain of Çağlar educational institutions in Georgia linked to Gülen, including one university, one college, and six schools.
The government of Turkey considers Gülen, who lives in exile in the US, a terrorist. They accuse him of being behind the attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016. Gülen denies the accusations and blames Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for staging the failed coup himself.
Now that the authority of the Şahin School has been revoked, the fate of other Gülen owned educational facilities in Georgia have been brought into question.
Given that the rector of the International Black Sea University, Dr. İlyas Çiloğlu, as well as Adem Olan, a member of the board of Çağlar Educational Institutions, both appear on a Turkish wanted list, the university’s future is in doubt.
According to Voice of America (VoA), the directors of all Çağlar education institution schools have been replaced by Georgians as result of a pressure from the Turkish government.
A number of Gülen run schools worldwide, including in Pakistan, Somali, Sudan, Guinea and Gabon, have been sized and handed over to the Turkish State Fund, VoA writes.
The Georgian parliament has passed legal amendments removing the last vestiges of independence from Adjara’s public broadcaster, subsuming it to the national public broadcaster.
On Friday, MPs from the ruling party adopted amendments to Georgia’s Law on Broadcasting eliminating the Adjara public broadcaster’s advisory board.
Adjara TV, based in the autonomous republic of Adjara in Western Georgia, was once hailed as a bastion of unbiased journalism in the country.
The changes effectively
The head of the west Georgian region of Adjara and the Mayor of Batumi have reportedly met with a Chechen businessperson with close ties to Ramzan Kadyrov.
TV Formula reported that the chair of the government of Adjara, Tornike Rizhvadze and Batumi Mayor Archil Chikovani hosted Aslanbek Akhetkhanov at a private party at the Radisson Hotel in Batumi on 29 May.
Sources told Formula that the lounge at which the party took place was closed off all night and that hotel personnel working in the lo
Georgian Dream have won a byelection for the Batumi City Council. While the council is now formally hung, a ‘neutral’ candidate is suspected to be a ruling party ally.
Georgian Dream’s candidate Ramaz Jincharadze won a convincing victory in Saturday’s vote for a majoritarian council seat in Batumi, Georgia’s second-largest city and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.
The result will upset plans by opposition groups the United National Movement (UNM) and Lelo to deny the ruling
Police have reportedly arrested up to 10 supporters of ultra-right wing and pro-Russia group Alt Info after they attacked a crowd protesting their newly-opened office in the Georgian town of Kobuleti.
Local activists came to the new branch of the Conservative Movement party, Alt Info’s recently created political wing, on Tuesday evening after holding a march in support of Ukraine, in the port city’s downtown area.
Rally co-organiser Nika Romanadze, who was among those injured in the attack
The Education Quality Development Centre of Georgia, an agency of the Ministry of Education, 
