Today In Crackdown

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

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

Aydın Engin, a veteran columnist for the Cumhuriyet daily, has reported that he received two death threats last week in İstanbul. Engin was first threatened on his way to a meeting with readers at an İstanbul bookstore on Saturday. He reported that one of three youngsters who stopped him after he parked his car said, “Look

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.

An İstanbul court has issued an arrest warrant for former editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily and exiled journalist Can Dündar to compel his testimony in a trial concerning the now shut-down pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem daily. The İstanbul 22nd Penal Court issued the warrant on Thursday, with the prosecutor demanding his imprisonment for supporting terrorist organization

Fırat News Agency (ANF) director Maxime Demiralp, who was taken into custody in Brussels on Dec. 16, was arrested by a Belgian court the next day at Turkey’s request, ANF said on Wednesday. In a statement on Wednesday, ANF said Demiralp was taken into custody on Dec. 15 by Belgian police on an INTERPOL notice