Today In Crackdown

At least 537 people were detained as part of investigations into the Gülen movement over the past week, according to government data. In a written statement on Monday, the Interior Ministry said 537 people were rounded up in operations targeting the Gülen movement between March 12-19. Turkish government accuses the movement of masterminding the July 15, 2016 […]

Turkish lawyer Burak Mengü was detained by a group of plainclothes police officers who battered him under custody, he revealed after being abandoned at a roadside in Istanbul’s Umraniye. “No one told me why and where I was being taken to,” Mengü tweeted Saturday. Meanwhile his sister, Nevsin Mengu said: “A group of people, claimed

The US TV series Orange is the New Black’s Turkish version, Avlu [the Yard] faces censorship over some of its scenes considered making propaganda on behalf of terror organizations. Starring Turkish actress Demet Evgar as the lead character, the new TV series is set to make its debut on March 29. Cumhuriyet newspaper reported Monday

Veteran journalist Şahin Alpay, released pending trial on Friday after 20 months in jail, said he left thousands people who have nothing to do with terrorism in prison, saying that “Turkey will not be free if they are not free.” “I am extremely happy to have reunited with my family. But I cannot say that

An Ankara court on Friday sentenced Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) former deputy co-chair Aysel Tuğluk to 10 years in prison in a case in which she was tried for allegedly “being the leader of a terror organization.” According to a report by the Hürriyet Daily News, Tuğluk said in her defense before the

Mahmut Birlik, vice president of the Gaziantep branch of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been appointed as trustee for 7 companies that were transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) due to their owners’ alleged links to the Gülen group, which is accused by Turkish authorities of being behind a failed coup in

At least 14 people were detained over their alleged use of ByLock mobile application in Turkey’s central Anatolian province of Konya on Thursday. A Turkish prosecutor issued detention warrants for a total of 17 people in Konya on accusations that they use a smart phone application known as ByLock, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. 15

A 37-year-old businessman, named Yavuz Bulbul took refuge at Austrian police after officers at the Turkish consulate general in Vienna attempted to seize his passport over links to the Gulen movement. According to Turkish and Austrian sources, Bulbul, on Tuesday, stopped by the consulate to extend his passport, to be expired soon. However, the consulate

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Tuesday hit back at a statement issued by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office concerning the 2016 death of teacher Gökhan Açıkkollu, asking why allegations of torture had not been investigated, Cumhuriyet reported. Following a statement made on March 6 by Kılıçdaroğlu concerning the death

A Turkish prosecutor on Tuesday demanded life imprisonment for American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been jailed in Turkey since October 2016, over alleged links to a failed coup attempt in July 2016, the Doğan news agency reported. Brunson, who was jailed due to suspected ties to the Gülen group, was charged with acquiring secret