Today In Crackdown

The Ministry of Interior Affairs recently announced in a written statement that as part of a state of emergency in Turkey, the mayors of all local administrations are required to obtain permission from the ministry if they want to travel abroad. Turkey declared emergency rule after a failed coup attempt on July 15 and has […]

The Turkey Blocks internet censorship watchdog has identified and verified that restrictions on the Tor anonymity network and Tor Browser are now in effect throughout Turkey. Our study indicates that service providers have successfully complied with a government order to ban VPN services. Tor is a free and open system designed to allow activists, journalists and ordinary internet users to circumvent government censorship of

The veteran Turkish journalist, Ayşenur Arslan quitted her daily program Medya Mahallesi [Media Neighborhood] at Halk TV, saying she cannot continue her job “as if everything is normal in Turkey.” “Sometimes silence is the biggest cry. We have come to the end at Medya Mahallesi,” she said during her last program on Dec. 16. “I cannot

Lawyer Serdar Ateş was given 15 years of prison sentence as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt, on Friday. As the government labels the movement as a terrorist network despite the lack of any court verdict to that effect, a Tokat court

Attacks by ultranationalist groups in several Turkish cities on pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) offices have been reported in the past couple of hours. A nationalist group of four people vandalized an HDP office in the western province of Çanakkale late on Saturday. According to local media, police briefly detained HDP members instead of the

Officials from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have called on the Turkish government to take immediate measures to prevent widespread attacks on HDP offices across the country. Releasing a statement late on Saturday, the HDP said Turkish authorities’ reluctance to prevent the attacks is nothing but a clear indication of “deliberate provocation.” “Tonight [Saturday

Turkish police detained 22 local politicians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Kırşehir province over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkish media outlets reported that late on Saturday police conducted simultaneous raids on the houses of HDP members and detained 22, including provincial chairman Demet Resuloğlu Çetin and vice chairmen

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır deputy Nimetullah Erdoğmuş, a former mufti of Diyarbakır, was detained by police on Thursday on allegations of leading civilian Friday prayers in 2011 that were performed in the street and attended by thousands of Kurds in order to boycott government mosques, where only appointed Sunni imams lead prayers. As

Thirty district governors and candidates for the position have been arrested in Tokat as part of an investigation targeting the Gülen movement, which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government accuse of being behind a failed coup attempt on July 15, TGRT reported on Thursday. According to the report, 75

Turkish police on Friday detained Nimetullah Erdoğmuş, a deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Filiz Kerestecioğlu, another HDP deputy, acknowledged the detention, and told Turkish media that Erdoğmuş’s house in Ankara was raided by riot police in the wee hours of Friday morning.