Turkey Purge

Police on Tuesday raided several locations across Turkey in line with detention warrants issued for 45 members of the Turkish Naval Forces for having a smart phone application named Bylock, which is considered a communication tool of the Gülen movement. Police had detained five people in İstanbul, one in Hatay and one in Kocaeli as […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s guard detail is reported to have roughed up İzmir’s Kemalpaşa Mayor Arif Uğurlu, a municipal councilor Bünyamin Demir and Professor Behzat Özkan, last week. Erdoğan as well as the Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım attended a ceremony to inaugurate a newly constructed dairy plant in İzmir on Dec. 23. While officials

İştar Gözaydın, a leading law professor, was arrested along with 7 other academics and staff from the now-closed Gediz University as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt, on Tuesday. Gözaydın and her 13 were detained last week on Tuesday. Held under detention

The deputy co-chair of Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) Aysel Tuğluk was detained in Ankara over alleged charges of terrorism on Monday. In a separate counter-terror police operation in Diyarbakır, two more Kurdish politicians, deputy co-chairs of Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Seydi Fırat and Edip Yaşar. The operation reportedly targeted politicians who took part in the

A Nevşehir court ruled on arrest of two small business owners, a lawyer and a housewife as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, on Sunday. The government accuses the movement of orchestrating a coup on July 15 while the latter denies charges. Shopkeepers K.G. and A.B.T., the lawyer M.D. and the housewife N.Ö.

Germany received asylum applications from a total of 5,166 Turkish citizens during the January-November period of 2016, according to a story in Deutsche Welle on Sunday. Responding to a question from the Funke Mediengruppe, the German government has announced that 5,166 Turkish citizens have sought asylum in Germany, noting that 80 percent of them are

An Ankara-based couple, who were earlier dismissed from their positions at Gazi University, have been detained along with their three kids in Edirne while they were on their way to escape to Greece. Gendarmerie stopped a car on Keşan-Malkara highway after a phone call informed them about the family’s plan, on Thursday. M.U. and his

The government-run Social Security Institution (SGK) has fined the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen TL 155,594 [$44,202] over alleged forgery in his premium payments between 1981 and 1990. According to Turkish media, SGK filed an investigation into Gülen’s payments into the social security system after he quitted the state-run Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) in 1981.

Turkey’s Council of Higher Education (YÖK) has tightened its disciplinary regulations to help universities suspend students more easily in case of an investigation. Evrensel daily reported that universities are now entitled to suspend students for a week to a month if they are found to have involved in activities that violate others’ right to teach

Mehmet Oldum, a 34-year-old police officer, hung himself after being targeted in the Turkish government’s post-coup witch hunt. Cumhuriyet daily reported on Dec. 21 that Oldum killed himself at his grandfather’s home in Ardıç village in Çorum’s Osmancık district. His brother found Oldum’s dead body. Oldum was earlier suspended as part of an investigation into