Turkey Purge

The logo of the Diyarbakır Municipality was removed on Saturday from the facade of city hall following the arrest last month of elected Co-mayors Gultan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı. The co-mayors of Diyarbakır, the largest Kurdish city in Turkey, are accused of terrorism and ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). A government-appointed trustee replaced […]

Abuzer Meral, a doctor at a private hospital in Turkey’s Yalova province, has lost his job after the pro-government Yeni Akit daily targeted him over Meral’s criticisms concerning compulsory religion lessons at schools. Meral said he had criticized on Facebook that his son was ordered to pray during a compulsory religious class at a secondary

It is not possible to “determine” the number of journalists in Turkish prisons, said Turkey’s justice minister in response to a parliamentary question on Saturday. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ responded to a parliamentary question submitted by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Adana deputy Meral Danış Beştaş in May. In his written response the minister said the

Turkish police have started detaining shopkeepers who have closed their stores in protest of the arrest of Kurdish politicians and mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey’s southeastern provinces. Newly emerged 30-second video footage, which drew strong reactions from social media users, shows police officers escorting a group of handcuffed Kurdish shopkeepers

Four lawyers and six law students who were detained as part of an investigation into the leftist İstanbul People’s Law Bureau on Thursday were subjected to police mistreatment in custody and awakened with a Janissary march on Friday morning, a news portal reported. According to the story on the Bianet website on Friday, the detained

Turkish police on Saturday detained the co-mayors of three districts of Turkey’s southeastern province of Hakkari as part of counterterrorism operations, officials have announced. Seferi Yılmaz, Adile Kozay and Servet Tunç, the elected co-mayors of Şemdinli, Yüksekova and Çukurca, respectively, were detained by police in their homes. Eight more people were included in the detentions

A total of 1,213 Twitter and Facebook users have been arrested while 818 others were released pending trial on accusation of making propaganda on behalf of what the government calls FETÖ, since the July 15 coup attempt. Investigation was launched into 10,200 suspects who were alleged to had been making propaganda for the Gülen movement

Mustafa Bayram, the mayor of the Halfeti district of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), was detained on Friday as part of a terrorism investigation. Police teams conducted a search at the municipal building on Friday and seized some documents. Media reports said detention warrants were also issued for

The state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has announced that a total of 691 companies have been seized by the government due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement. The seized companies include giant holdings such as Boydak Holding, Kaynak Holding, Koza İpek Holding and Fi Yapı, according to a statement on the TMSF