Today In Crackdown

Faruk Güllü, one of the owners of the leading baklava maker Güllüoğlu Baklava, was given a prison sentence of eight years, nine months over links to Turkey’s Gülen group, accused of masterminding a coup attempt in 2016. The group denies any involvement in the attempt. The same court also ruled for Güllü’s release due to […]

Arlet Natali Avazyan, an Armenian-origin Turkish human rights activist, was detained following a police raid on her house on Tuesday. The reason for her detention is currenlty unknown. Avazyan is known in Turkey with her tweets that are in critical of the Turkish government. Last week, She launched a fundraising campaign and raised €50,000 in

A prosecutor is seeking life in prison for Osman Kavala, a Turkish businessman and a human rights activist, for “seeking to overthrow the government” through the Gezi Park protests in 2013. According to the Turkish media, two other suspects — Yiğit Aksakoğlu and Mücella Yapıcı — are also facing life in prison on similar charges.

Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines has fired one of its pilots after he openly criticized the Turkish government on a live TV interview following a Pegasus passenger plane skidding off the runway last Wednesday. Bahadır Altan, a former military pilot who was working for the company as a technical consultant and trainer, tweeted Saturday that his contract

Büşra Öztürk, a Turkish woman with a 22-day-old baby, was detained by police in Ankara on Wednesday for alleged links to the Gülen group, which the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016. The group denies any involvement in the failed attempt. According to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a member of parliament and

Turkish police have detained a total of 1,768 people throughout January over alleged links to the Gülen group, an Interior Ministry spokesperson announced on Tuesday. The group is accused by the government of orchestrating an abortive putsch in 2016 despite its denial of any involvement, Following the coup 2016 attempt, the Turkish government launched a

A Turkish court ruled on Thursday to keep renowned Turkish businessman and rights advocate Osman Kavala in pre-trial detention. The next hearing on his case is set for Feb. 18. Fifteen other defendants are on trial along with Kavala, who is currently the only one in prison. The ruling was made although the European Court

Garanti Bank, a financial services company based in Turkey, has been called to account by BBVA, a Spanish multinational financial services company, after it recently refused to open a checking account to a purge-victim medical doctor because the the latter was dismissed from his job by a government decree in the aftermath of a 2016

An online petition has been launched to support a “March of Justice” that will be carried out by the mother of one of the military cadets who were jailed in the aftermath of a failed military coup in July 2016. Melek Çetinkaya, the mother of Furkan Çetinkaya, one of the cadets at the Turkish Air

The International Institute of Islamic Thought, a privately held non-profit organization based in the USA, canceled a book talk by Ahmet Kuru,  a professor of political science at San Diego State University, due to an article in which the author criticized the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Remove from your calendar! @IIITfriends cancelled my book