Turkey’s post-coup crackdown
150,348
dismissed*
597,793
investigated**
94,975
arrested
3,003
schools, dormitories and universities shut down
6,021
academics lost jobs****
4,463
judges, prosecutors dismissed*****
189
media outlets shut down
319
journalists arrested***
since July 15, 2016 as of January 26, 2022
*This number includes (1) state officials, teachers, bureaucrats, and academics who were dismissed by gov’t decrees, No.668 issued on July 25, 2016, No.669 issued on July 31, 2016, No. 670/71 issued on August 17, 2016, No. 672/673/674 issued on Sept. 1, 2016, No.675/676 issued on Oct. 29, 2016, No. 677/678 issued on Nov. 22, 2016, No.679/680/681 issued on Jan. 6, 2017, No.682/683/684/685 issued on Jan. 23, 2017, No.686/687 issued on Feb. 7, 2017, No.689 issued on April 29, 2017, No.692 issued on July 14, 2017, No.693/694 issued on August 25, 2017, No.701 issued on July 8, 2018; and (2) academics who lost their jobs by gov’t decrees, No. 672/673/674 issued on Sept. 1, 2016, No.675/676 issued on Oct. 29, 2016, No. 677/678 issued on Nov. 22, 2016, No.679/680/681 issued on Jan. 6, 2017, No.686/687 issued on Feb. 7, 2017, No.689 issued on April 29, No.692 issued on July 14, 2017, No.693/694 issued on August 25, 2017, No.701 issued on July 8, 2018; (3) and dismissed military personnel [17,844 officers and 16,409 cadets]. For detailed information, please visit: https://turkeypurge.com/purge-in-numbers-2 and turkeypurge.com/academics-sacked-from-positions.
**According to an official statement by the Turkish Justice Minister on June 15, 2020. See https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2020/gundem/bakan-soylu-feto-bilancosunu-acikladi-99-bin-066-operasyon-5931900/
***Data compiled from PEN International, Expression Interrupted, Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF), Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), Progressive Journalists Association (ÇGD), and Bianet online news portal. This number includes all journalists who were arrested in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. Some 50 of them are still kept under arrest with the remaining released pending trial or cleared of charges. For detailed information, please visit: https://turkeypurge.com/journalism-in-jail
****This number includes only the ones dismissed by gov’t decrees, No. 672/673/674 issued on Sept. 1, 2016, No.675/676 issued on Oct. 29, 2016, No. 677/678 issued on Nov. 22, 2016, No.679/680/681 issued on Jan. 6, 2017, No.686/687 issued on Feb. 7, 2017, No.689 issued on April 29, No.692 issued on July 14, 2017, No.693/694 issued on August 25, 2017; and not the ones who lost jobs when the Turkish government passed a decree ordering the closure of 15 universities on July 23, 2016. For detailed information, please visit: https://turkeypurge.com/academics-sacked-from-positions-2
*****Constitutional Court general assembly resolution 2016/49158 on June 26, 2017, paragraph 19.
Government Decrees
Human Tragedies
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Purge-victim mother, son depart for Germany for cancer treatment after months-long legal struggle
Zekiye Ataç, the mother of an 8-year-old cancer patient, has finally been allowed to accompany her son for treatment abroad, following an exhaustive, months-long struggle aided by human rights activists and public figures to overturn a travel ban imposed on her due to an investigation over Gülen links. Haluk Levent, a Turkish rock star and
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Purge-victim commissioned officer commits suicide at İstanbul mosque
Adem Gürbüz, a commissioned officer who spent some five months in prison after a coup attempt in 2016, committed a suicide at a mosque in İstanbul. According to pro-Kurdish HDP deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Gürbüz suspended from his job after the coup attempt and spent some five months in prison until he was released on
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Man with one kidney being held in prison for over 9 months despite high risk of kidney failure
Ramazan Sarıkaya, a Turkish man with one kidney, has been held in a prison for over nine months on coup, terror charges even though his remaining kidney works at around 35 percent capacity. According to pro-Kurdish HDP Deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Sarıkaya is at an imminent risk of kidney failure and thus must be released
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Leaked napkin reveals 10 female teachers, 1 dentist held in degrading prison conditions in Şanlıurfa
A piece of napkin that was leaked from Turkey’s Şanlıurfa prison has revealed that ten female teachers, one dentist and one housewife have been held in degrading prison conditions for months on terror and coup charges. According to the Bold news, the arrestees have repeatedly been denied medical care although some of them suffer from
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Purge-victim engineer denied release from prison despite stage 4 liver cancer
Abdülazim Özdemir, a 49-year-old Turkish engineer who was jailed in the aftermath of a failed coup in 2016, has been denied release from prison despite having been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer, according to a letter from his wife, who is also in prison, the Bold Medya news website reported. Özdemir has been staying
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High school teacher suffering from multiple heavy diseases held in prison for 20 months
Uğur Ergüler, a Turkish high school teacher who suffers from multiple heavy diseases, including hemorrhoids, chronic prostatitis and Chiari malformation, has been held in a Zonguldak prison for over 20 months on terror, coup charges. Chiari malformation is a condition in which brain tissue extends into spinal canal. According to a Twitter account, the purge-victim
Today in Crackdown
International Reactions
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9 international human rights groups call on Turkish gov’t to release political prisoners in face of COVID-19 outbreak
9 international human rights groups have called on governments aroud the world, NGOs and the UN to push the Turkish government to release political prisoners and “condemn its use of the pandemic to further target human rights defenders.” The right groups — Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Article 19, English PEN, Freedom House, Human
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U.S. House Committee Chair calls on Turkish President Erdogan to release purge-victim prisoners in face of COVID-19 outbreak
Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote a letter last week calling on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to release journalists, civil society activists, and members of the political opposition “who do not appear to have committed any criminal acts.” Rep. Engel’s letter came in
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EP rapporteur calls on Turkey to release purge-victim journalists, civilians to stem COVID-19
The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, Nacho Sanchez Amor, has called on the Turkish government to release hundreds of imprisoned journalists, lawyers, activists and human rights defenders within the scope of a new amnesty bill drafted due to serious health concerns posed to inmates by the novel coronavirus. “According to news, Turkish Gov is planning an
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Take Action: Sign petition to reunite purge-victim mother with 8-year old cancer patient son in Germany ||
An online petition has been launched to re-unite an eight-year-old Turkish kid who is receiving cancer treatment in Germany, with his mother, who is not allowed to leave Turkey due to a travel ban. The kid — Ahmet Burhan Ataç, — went to Germany on January 26 for a cancer treatment without his parents as
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Boston Celtics center Kanter thanks Trudeau for “letting him play basketball in Canada”
Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter thanked Canadian Minister Justin Trudeau and his government in a tweet on Wednesday for issuing him a visa to enter Canada to play in the NBA’s first Christmas game in Toronto. Kanter, an outspoken critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, has not traveled outside the United States for
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Bosnian authorities set Gülenist educator free after 12 days in detention
A Bosnian court has ruled for the release of Fatih Keskin, the principal of Una-Sana College, part of the Gülen-affiliated Richmond Park Schools Group, who was detained by the Bosnian police on Dec. 4, Bold Medya reported. Keskin was requested to appear at a police station in Bihać city by the Ministry of Interior of
Report on Turkey’s hijacked mainstream press
Human Rights Abuses
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Turkish commentator says her family is ready to execute people for Erdogan
Sevda Noyan, an Islamist TV commentator, said during a live TV interview that she regrets the fact that she failed to kill more people on the night of the July 15 coup attempt in 2016, adding that her family is now fully-prepared and is capable of “executing” some 50 people for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Pro-government columnist says Gulenists are worse than Coronavirus disease
Nedim Şener, a pro-government columnist, said during a live interview that Gülenists are worse than the COVID-19 outbreak, which has recently been declared a global pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO). “Coronovirus is a disease that may be dealth with, someday. But Feto [Gulenism] is not. It is an infidelity that does not leave one’s
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Turkish police fire water cannon at pro-Kurdish election posters: report
Turkish police have fired water cannon at election banners that promote the candidates of the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the upcoming municipal election in Turkey. A video footage posted by a twitter account, shows the moment police fire water cannon at posters The motives of the action is not clear at the moment.
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Pro-gov’t anchor calls for beheading of Gezi protesters
Turkish television anchor Erkan Tan, known for his staunch pro-government stance on A Haber TV, on Tuesday called for the beheading of protesters who were involved in the countrywide anti-government Gezi protests in the summer of 2013. While arguing in a column for the Takvim newspaper that there are some who would like to import
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Pro-gov’t journalist says Gulen-linked ‘fugitives’ should be abducted or killed
Pro-gov’t journalist calls for killing of Turkish businessman and individuals like him who he accused of being top Gulenists. Pro-government Turkish journalist Emre Erciş has called on Turkey’s intelligence agency to abduct or exterminate critical businessman Akın İpek and other top Gulenists following a court verdict in the UK that rejected Ankara’s request for his
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Former Turkish NATO officer reflects on his days in Ankara prison: Inmates given electric shocks to sign forced confessions
Former Lt. Cdr. Cafer Topkaya, a purged and jailed Turkish naval officer who was assigned to NATO prior to a failed coup in Turkey, has told Deutsche Welle that he is coming out of the shadows to relate what he experienced “for those who can’t meet the press, who can’t meet with journalists, who can’t
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“We’re concerned about the fate of people in Turkish prisons”
THE FALLEN OF TURKEY’S PURGE
At least 120 purge-victims died either in Turkish prisons or while living in exile somewhere in the world
Witnessed abuse? Report here
