Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj dismissed on Friday the interior minister and the secret service chief after the arrest and extradition to Turkey of six Turkish nationals.
Blamed by Ankara for playing a role in the failed coup in 2016, six Turkish nationals had been arrested in Kosovo. Turkey's intelligence agency on Thursday brought back from Kosovo six members of US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen's network blamed for orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt. The operation was carried out between Kosovo's spy services and Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT).
State-run Anadolu news agency reported that the accused allegedly recruited people in Gülen's network and facilitated their escape from Turkey.
Ramush Haradinaj said Interior Minister Flamur Sefaj and the head of the country's intelligence service Driton Gashi had not informed him about their decision. Addressing lawmakers, Haradinaj said he considered the deportation a "violation of the decision-making hierarchy."
"Yesterday's operation is unacceptable and contrary to our values, our State's principles," Haradinaj said.
Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci also claims he was not informed of the operation to expel the six Turks.
Kosovo police said on Thursday they had arrested six Turkish nationals linked to schools financed by the Gülen's network. At its peak, CIA-linked Gülen network, led by Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen operated schools in 160 countries from Afghanistan to the United States.
Gülen, had been a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP government. Gülen network, which had been organised in the police, judiciary, military and the other states institutions, helping Erdoğan to redesign and install his Islamic-rooted AKP party in power in 2002. But his alliance with the AKP has faltered in recent years. On 15 July 2016, the network of Gülen attempted to topple down Erdoğan by a military coup but it failed.
