Turkey Purge

Woman left to look after disabled children, 72-year-old mother, father

Hacer Çakmak, the mother of three children, two of them disabled, and the wife of a Turkish judge who is under arrest, is among hundreds of thousands of people who found themselves facing tremendous difficulties after the government started a desperate crackdown on the Gülen movement in the aftermath of a July 15 coup attempt. […]

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Following prisoners’ lawyer, US academic warns against staged prison break in Turkey

Just a day after the lawyer for several political prisoners urged the international community to monitor Turkish prisons amid rumors of prison breaks being staged in order to massacre prisoners, an American academic who correctly predicted a military coup in Turkey prior to July 15 gave a similar warning in a piece published on the

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Another arrestee found dead in Turkish prison, pro-gov’t daily reports

A 50-year-old man who was arrested following a failed coup on July 15 on charges of alleged involvement in the attempt was found dead on Tuesday in a prison in Turkey’s Kırıkkale province, the pro-gov’t daily Yeni Şafak reported. The man, whose name has not yet been released due to an ongoing investigation into the

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ANNOUNCEMENT: We’re concerned about the fate of people in Turkish prisons

Turkey is going through its darkest and gloomiest days in terms of rule of law, the right to a fair trial and even the most fundamental rights and liberties, which are major benchmarks for democracy. Intellectuals, journalists, critical politicians, businesspeople, celebrities and media organizations are being silenced via threats and oftentimes jailed. The recent statement of

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Turkey arrests another pro-Kurdish parliamentarian

Following the arrest of nine deputies from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) last week, Turkey on Monday arrested one more HDP deputy in the southeastern province of Hakkari. HDP Hakkari deputy Nihat Akdoğan was detained at the Depin police checkpoint, seven kilometers from Hakkari city center. Akdoğan was subsequently brought to the Hakkari courthouse by

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Another 15 civil servants detained in İzmir-based witch hunt operation

Fifteen people working for the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality were detained after police raided their homes on Monday morning on the grounds that they use a smart phone application known as ByLock. The municipal employees were detained as part of an investigation, overseen by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, into the faith-based Gülen movement, which

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Pro-Kurdish HDP deputy’s son hospitalized after beating during police interrogation

Muhammed Cihad Saatçioğlu, the son of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Hüda Kaya was hospitalized with spinal fractures after, according to many, being beaten during interrogation at a police station in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district. Saatçioğlu was detained along with some 20 others when police intervened into a press meeting about the government’s recent crackdown

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Report: Turkey’s purge risks isolating its higher education from int’l academia

Turkey’s purge of academics has already harmed the reputation of its higher education sector, the latest Free to Think report from the New York-based Scholars at Risk (SAR) noted adding that it risks greater damage by isolating Turkish scholars, students, and institutions from the international flow of ideas and talent. Released on Oct. 31, SAR’s report chronicled 158 assaults

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Lawyer urges int’l monitoring in Turkish prisons over staged riot claims

Lawyer Ömer Turanlı has called on human rights organizations and the relevant commissions of the EU to immediately monitor incidents taking place in Turkey’s prisons while expressing grave concerns about the safety of his clients due to claims of a staged riot. In a series of messages from his Twitter account on Sunday, Turanlı, who

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Police detain two reporters from gov’t-raided JINHA news agency

Bengi Kömürcü and Duygu Ciniviz, two reporters for JINHA, pro-Kurdish news agency that the government closed down under post-coup emergency rule, have been detained in Istanbul. Journalists gathered at Kadıköy ferry port in order to report on a press meeting by some women organizations on Sunday. After a random identification control, police detained Kömürcü and

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