By Tufan Aktas

ADDIS ABABA 

Ethiopia has failed to transfer to a Turkish foundation the schools linked to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), despite instructions given by the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office.

In March 2017, the Prime Minister’s Office had directed the Ministry of Education to transfer six schools owned by the FETO to Turkey’s Maarif Foundation.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the failed coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also 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.

According to information obtained by Anadolu Agency, the schools were not transferred to the foundation, despite a letter was sent by Ethiopian former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to the then Education Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam and Trade Minister Bekele Gulado.

The letter signed by Desalegn was not implemented due to the network of the terror group in Ethiopian bureaucracy.

The letter directed the relevant authorities to revoke the license of the investment group, named Kaynak, due to its ties to the terror group and transfer the schools to Maarif Foundation.

Teklemariam, the then education minister, was dismissed from his post by new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. He was later appointed as Ethiopian ambassador to South Africa.

Shortly after the Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome said the FETO-linked schools will be handed over to the Turkish foundation, the schools were fraudulently sold to a German citizen.

The schools were renamed as "Intellectual Schools".