09 January 2017•Update: 09 January 2017
NEW YORK
An academic on a list of “Most Wanted Terrorists" in Turkey for his ties to the group accused of being behind Turkey’s July 2016 failed coup has been named the head of an American university.
Serif Ali Tekalan, a medical school professor, was recently appointed the president of the Houston, Texas-based North American University, according to a Dec. 19 statement by the university.
Tekalan is on the Turkish Interior Ministry’s Most Wanted terrorists list, with a reward of 750,000 Turkish liras ($205,829) for information leading to his capture, over his links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group Turkey says is behind the defeated coup, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
North American University, formerly North American College, was founded by Gulenists in 2010.
Before the coup attempt, he served as the rector of Istanbul’s Fatih University, another FETO school.
Tekalan first fled the police after being implicated in a 2010 cheating scandal. When police issued an arrest warrant for his links to two suspects accused of supplying thousands of FETO-linked individuals questions and answers for Turkey's Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS), he became a fugitive.
On the run, Tekalan posted selfies of himself from Paris before making his way to Texas.
In addition to the coup attempt, Turkey accuses FETO – led by U.S. based Fetullah Gulen – of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
The terrorist group is also known for its network of hundreds of schools across the world, including in the U.S., many accused of fraud and breaking local laws to give jobs to FETO teachers.
