STEM Education Private Limited Company, a company run by German Investors alleges that a school it ran in Addis Ababa was illegally handed over to the Maarif Foundation by the government.
Maarif Foundation is an educational institution with the stated aim of ensuring the accessibility and development of quality education all over the globe. The Turkish Gülen Movement, a movement inspired by the Turkish Muslim Cleric Fethullah Gülen, however, claims that the state-run foundation also engages in activities that target the movement all over the globe.
The Turkish government recognised the Gülen Movement as a terrorist group and orchestrator of a failed coup against the Turkish ruling party, Justice and Development Party, back in 2016.
Turkish authorities claim that the school in Addis Ababa ran by STEM Education is affiliated to the movement but that the Maarif Foundation acquired the school in full adherence of Ethiopian and international laws.
The Turkish government does not deny that it targets schools associated with the movement and confirms that it has taken over 216 schools across 44 countries associated with the movement. However, it says that it does so through legal means and that the claim that it uses illegal means is false.