Turkey Purge

The Turkish government has arrested at least 1,473 members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt and has seized the administration of 63 municipalities. The pro-Kurdish DBP won 103 municipalities in the recent local elections, which were held on 30 March

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ayhan Bilgen was detained early on Sunday as part of the crackdown against Turkey’s Kurdish political movement. Bilgen, the spokesperson of the HDP, tweeted that he was taken into custody at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport ahead of his flight to İstanbul on Sunday morning. “I was just detained at

Hatice Bender, a muhtar, or neighborhood head, who did not participate in meetings held for muhtars in the palace of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was arrested for insulting statesmen on her social media account, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Saturday. “A new article has been invented that does not exist in the TCK [Turkish Penal

A total of 15 police officers were detained in Sakarya province on Sunday over alleged links to the Gülen movement, the Habertürk daily has reported. Police officers are detained on charges of using ByLock, a smart phone application that authorities believe is a communication tool between members of the Gülen movement. In a similar vein,

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Hüda Kaya and Meral Danış Beştaş were detained early on Saturday as part of the crackdown against Turkey’s Kurdish political movement. According to a tweet posted by HDP Adana deputy Beştaş, a group of police officers raided her house late on Friday night. Hours later, HDP Diyarbakır deputy

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has admitted that the “State of Emergency commission” was established to prevent the victims of post-coup violations from taking their cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Government decree numbered 685, one of the four decrees issued on Jan. 23, formed “Commission to Investigate State of Emergency Matters” to

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced on Thursday that the number of new applications against Turkey skyrocketed 276 percent year-on-year in 2016 while the increase largely stemmed from the government’s human rights violations in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt. ECtHR received a total of 8,308 new applications against Turkey, of which

An Eskişehir man who is known with initials N.T., was detained during a visit to his jailed relative on Thursday, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. The suspect was, later the same day, arrested as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of leading a coup attempt on July 15. N.T. 

An İstanbul court on Thursday sentenced Kurdish journalist Arzu Demir to six years in prison over her two books on outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over propaganda of terrorist organization. According to the decision by İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court, Demir was charged with “propaganda for an [illegal] organization”, “praising the crime and the criminal”