Turkish teacher Ibrahim Yakar detained in Durres for trying to cross to Bari with a fake passport

Port of Durres (archive)

 Another Turkish teacher that is allegedly being persecuted by Erdogan's regime in Turkey after being labeled a "Gülenist" is reported to have been arrested at a border crossing point in the port of Durres. 

Ibrahim Yakar has been detained by Albanian police after he had a fake Bulgarian passport and consequently Durres court has imposed the security measure "jail arrest" on suspicion of "falsification of IDs, passports or visas" and "forgery of documents. ”According to the court ruling, it turns out that:“… at around 8:30 pm, at the Port of Durres, Ibrahim Yakar appeared to cross the border into Bari-Italy.

During the inspection of the documentation, this person showed a Bulgarian identity card on behalf of Nikolay Neykob as well as a Bulgarian passport on behalf of Nikolay Neyko. Both of these documents appear to be counterfeit, which have already been seized. Ibrahim Yakar stated that he left Turkey 10 days ago by plane and went to Bosnia and Herzegovina and then went to Belgrade, Serbia and then to Kosovo. On March 2, 2020, he left Kosovo for Albania and arrived in Durres.

He stayed in a hotel for 2 days and on March 5, 2020, at 8:30 pm, he was presented with a Bulgarian passport and ID to cross the border into Italy from the Durres Sea Port. Yakar explained that he received his Bulgarian passport and card a week before he was detained in Novi Pazar, Serbia, and bought it for 1200 euros from a person he did not know.

This is not the first time that education officials in Turkey have been arrested in Albania in an attempt to cross into Italy with forged documents. The first case in Albania where a Turkish citizen was deported with extra-legal proceedings was that of Harun Celik, while efforts are being made to deport another citizen to Turkey - Selami Simsek.