Turkey Purge

Edirne police, joined by a group of gendarmes, stormed a building in the city where US-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen resided in 55 years ago when he worked as an imam at the famous Üç Şerefeli Mosque. The government accuses Gülen of orchestrating a coup attempt on July 15, while he denies any involvement. The […]

Amid a major crackdown against Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), another two deputies from the third largest party in Parliament, Çağlar Demirel and Besime Konca, was arrested on Tuesday. Turkey has stepped up its crackdown on Kurdish politicians in recent months. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish

Twenty-one academics from Antalya’s Aladdin Keykubat University (ALKÜ) were detained as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt. Accused of subscribing movement-affiliated newspapers and magazines; putting money into Bank Asya; teaching at institutions linked with the movement, detainees included lecturers and teaching assistants.

Foreign journalists were targeted by pro-Erdoğan trolls and media for their tweets reporting on twin bomb attacks in İstanbul immediately after they occurred on Saturday night. A campaign on social media was launched by a troll with more than 134,000 followers, @ustakiloyunlari, who wrote, “These journalists, like agents, were aware of the attacks,” with a

Police carried out multiple operations to detain at least 45 officials from pro-Kurdish Republican Peoples’ Party’s (HDP) Istanbul and Adana branches, early Monday. Istanbul police took into custody 20 HDP officials including the party’s Istanbul branch head Aysel Güzel on terrorism charges. Meanwhile 25 people, among them executives from HDP’s Adana branch along with district

The government pressure is taking new turns everyday with people from all professions imposing self-censorship. A well-known Karagoz (historic shadow puppet) master who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told Albawaba news outlet:  “I now restrain myself during performances because you never know if someone in the audience will denounce you to the authorities.

The new mayor of Sur district of Diyarbakır province, who was recently appointed by the Turkish government in place of the democratically elected pro-Kurdish mayor, has reportedly removed all the Armenian, Assyrian signs and words from the facade of municipal building. Turkey’s Interior Ministry appointed trustees to many municipalities in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern regions,

A huge cleansing of Turkey’s state and other institutions is continuing as people from all walks of life find themselves being hunted down and taken into custody. At least 74 people were arrested, while 198 others were detained over the past 48 hours, according to Turkish news agencies. Police carried out the operations in at

Internationally known Turkish author Aslı Erdoğan, who is currently in jail, said that due to rumors of revolts in prisons she and other inmates stayed on alert for five days, in a written interview for an Italian daily. Erdoğan, who was imprisoned on charges of alleged terrorism for sitting on the advisory board of the

A group of assailants on Thursday evening attacked the headquarters of the nationalist Yeniçağ daily in the Yenibosna neighborhood of İstanbul. The newspaper said in a statement that the attackers were armed, used ski masks and attacked the newspaper building with paving stones. Police teams have been dispatched to the area while an extensive investigation