Human Tragedies of Turkey’s Purge
Woman put in pre-trial detention for attending pro-Gulen protest in 2015: report
Deniz Arslan, a Turkish woman and a mother of two children aged 2,5 and 5, has been sent to prison for attending a pro-Gulen protest in 2015. According to a twitter account, Arslan is scheduled to stand her first tiral on September 11, 2019. Her two kids, Yavuz and...
24-year old medical student gets 6 years in prison on coup, terror charges: deputy
Münise Kübra Çakırçoban, a fourth year medical student, has been sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison over her alleged links to Turkey's Gülen group, accused of masterminding a coup attempt in 2016. According to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a pro-Kurdish HDP...
“The services offered to babies in prison is very good. But you still complain”
A Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy has said more than 800 children who are accompanying their mothers in Turkey’s prisons are being taken good care of and are even given diapers, according to an opposition deputy. Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)...
Mother, father put in pre-trial detention on coup charges, kids left in care of grandparents
Emine Sivri Aşkın and Cengiz Aşkın, two Turkish citizens and the parent of two children aged 5 and 10, have been held in pre-trial detention for over three months over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a...
Purge-victim Turkish woman sent back to prison a day after suffering a miscarriage: report
Hanife Çiftçi, a Turkish woman who was jailed in June when she was seven weeks pregnant due to her alleged links to the Gülen movement, lost her unborn baby and was sent back to prison from the hospital on the same day, the tr724 news website reported last week....
Jailed cancer patients released too late to get treatment: deputy
Tacettin Toprak, a Turkish citizen who had been held in Manisa prison for over three years, was too ill to treat by the time he was released from prison on Saturday, according to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights activist and a deputy from the...
Another Ankara man goes missing as abduction allegations mount
Yusuf Bilge Tunç, a former civil servant who was fired from Turkey’s Defense Ministry, has been missing since Tuesday, according to Turkish deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu. Tweeting a photo of the vehicle belonging to Bilge Tunç, Tanrıkulu called on the Turkish interior...
Video shows the moments history teacher Gokhan Acikkollu died of heart attack in prison
Bold Medya has released a video showing the negligence of police officers in the death of Gökhan Açıkkollu, a purged history teacher who died of a heart attack while under detention in 2016. https://twitter.com/TurkeyPurge/status/1157406029409390592?s=20 In the video...
26-year-old epilepsy patient held in Konya prison for months on coup charges: report
Hatice Erol, a 26-year-old Turkish woman who suffers from epilepsy and requires daily medication, has been held in pre-trial detention in Konya prison for over 10 months over alleged links to Turkey's Gülen movement. The movement is accused by the Turkish government...
Former Hacettepe rector held in solitary confinement on coup, terror charges: report
Murat Tuncer, a Turkish professor and the former rector of Hacettepe University, has been held in solitary confinement for over two years at Ankara's E Type Sincan prison over alleged membership in the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of...
Purge-victim American scientist: All I want is to go back to the US and continue working for NASA
Serkan Gölge, a Turkish-American scientist imprisoned in Turkey for nearly three years on coup charges, said in an exclusive interview that he is happy to be free and now all he wants is to go back to the USA and continue working for NASA as scientist. 37-year-old...
Jailed in post-coup crackdown, 27-year-old teacher loses sanity in prison
Harun Karateke, a 27-year-old English teacher who was jailed in March 2017 due to alleged links to the Gülen movement, is suffering mental health problems in jail and is not receiving proper treatment, the Aktif Haber news website reported on Tuesday. Karateke was...
Jailed woman, newborn baby sent back to prison a day after delivery
A jailed woman named Hatice Sahnaz was sent bact to prison a day after she delivery her baby girl at a nearby hospital, media reported Saturday. Arrested on Sept 4, 2018 when she was 3-weeks pregnant, the 28-year-old woman has been behind bars in an Antalya prison...
Report: Gov’t violated right to life in jailed English teacher’s death
Turkish government has violated the right to life in jailed English teacher Halime Gulsu’s death, a recent report by human rights group concluded. Gülsu, an English teacher who was arrested on Feb. 20, 2018 for her alleged links to the Turkey’s Gülen group, died on...
Mentally disabled man put in pre-trial detention in Malatya: report
Yusuf Akkuş, a Turkish man wih 70 percent disability rating, has been put in pre-trial detention in Malatya prison on terror charges. According to a Twitter account run by Akkuş's brother, he had a stroke in 2016 in Syria. When he was brought back to Turkey by his...
Public relations specialist given 19 years in jail on coup charges, put in solitary confinement in Çorum prison
Mehmet Keleş, a 44-year-old Turkish man who used to work as a public relations specialist at a Gülen-affiliated high school in Eskişehir, has been given 19 years in prison on terror and coup charges. According to a twitter account, Keleş is currently being held in...
Psychiatrist seeking cancer treatment abroad denied passport due to post-coup dismissal
Psychiatry professor Haluk Savaş said he was denied passport due to the fact that he had been dismissed as part of the Turkish government’s post-coup crackdown. Savaş was earlier held under arrest for months over his alleged links to the Gülen movement before he was...
It is time to do a reality check and see how the mother’s of Turkey’s purge are doing
As the world celebrates The Mother's Day today, more than 17,000 women, many of them with babies, have been deprived of enjoying the day as they are obliged to spend it in prisons across Turkey. Especially after a coup attempt on July 15, prisons in Turkey turned into...
[VIDEO] Turkish philosophy teacher says wife had to give birth at home due to Erdogan’s witch-hunt
A Turkish philosophy teacher, named Yasin, has said in a video documentary that his wife had to give birth to their 4th child at home due to an arrest warrant the government issued against them over their suspected ties to the Gulen movement. Advocates for Silenced...
Kütahya parent in pre-trial detention for 3 months on coup charges, 3-year old daughter left in care of relatives: report
Sümeyra Öztürk and Fatih Öztürk, two Turkish citizens and the parent of a three-year old child, have been held in pre-trial detention for over three months over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a coup...
Jailed prosecutor’s wife died on way to visit husband in prison
Firdevs Pekgüzel, the wife of the former prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel who was jailed as part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s post-coup crackdown, passed away following a traffic accident, according to sources. “People are dying on the way to visit their spouses...
Biology teacher who fled Erdogan’s crackdown to Argentina dies while working to make a living as deliveryman
Ebubekir Altay, a 34-year-old biology teacher from Turkey who sought refuge in Argentina in the face of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s post-coup crackdown, passed away following a traffic accident. Altay picked up ice-cream from a store in Buenos Aires with his...
Turkish educator who inspired 2015 movie with her volunteer work behind bars for 31 months: report
A Turkish woman whose story inspired a blockbuster movie in 2015 has developed serious health problems during her 31 months in prison and solitary confinement, the tr724 news website reported on Thursday. According to the report Karyağdı has developed advanced-stage...
Green Card lottery winner from Turkey loses chance to enter US due to post-coup arrest warrant
Mehdi Başoğlu, a 22-year-old recent university graduate from Istanbul, lost his chance to enter US with the Green Card Diversity program due to an arrest warrant Turkish government issued against him as part of the post-coup crackdown. Bold online news portal reported...
Physics teacher, dismissed in post-coup purge, dies of cancer at 43
A physics teacher at a high school in Turkey's Bursa province until he was dismissed, Gökşin Öz died of cancer at the age of 43, several sources reported. Oz spent some time in prison as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement's followers in the aftermath of...
[VIDEO] Purge Museum visits Brussels with Turkey’s post-coup victims telling of their tragedies
Purge Museum, an initiative that collects and exhibits items belonging to individuals who survived Turkey’s massive crackdown on the Gülen movement, opened for a four-day run in Brussels on Tuesday evening, presenting a selection of articles and their heart-wrenching...
Purge-victim engineer dies of brain cancer weeks after being released from prison: HDP deputy
Mustafa Çelikbilek, a purge-victim Turkish engineer, died of brain cancer on Tuesday, according to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a human rights activist and a deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Gergerlioğlu frequently brings up the plight of victims of the...
‘Gulenist’ purge-victim receiving cancer treatment in Manisa prison: HDP deputy
Ahmet Karakuş, a Turkish man who was imprisoned over his links to Turkey's Gülen movement, has been receiving chemotherapy treatment for cancer in prison and has not been released, according to a member of the Turkish parliament. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a human...
[VIDEO] Turkish gov’t removes 3-year-old adopted child from foster family over Gülen links
A 3-year-old boy was separated from his foster family as the adoptive parents were removed from their public jobs over his alleged links to the Gulen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt. Euronews spoke with a...
29-year-old purge-victim lawyer commits suicide in Turkey’s Zonguldak: report
Emir Said İnam, a Turkish lawyer from Zonguldak's Devrek district, killed himself at his home April 16, Turkish police said. According to the Cumhuriyet daily, his family members called for an ambulance and he was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead....
WATCH: Emotional reunion of 7-year-old son, father after almost 2 years in Turkish prison
When a 7-year-old boy finally got to see his imprisoned father again, cameras were rolling, and so were the tears. According to a video footage posted by a twitter account, a Turkish man who was put in pre-trial detention on terror and coup charges in early 2017, has...
1-year-old baby with cancer held in Mardin prison with mother: former HDP deputy
Avşin Usanmaz, a one-year-old baby with brain cancer, has been held in a prison in Mardin province with his imprisoned mother. According to a tweet posted by Mehmet Ali Aslan, a former Turkish deputy, the baby is diagnosed with a brain tumor which causes red and...
Turkish computer science student missing in Evros following failed attempt to escape to Greece
21-year-old university student Mahir Mete Kul was found dead days after the boat he used to cross Evros river between Greece and Turkey capsized on March 24. A computer science student at Istanbul’s Beykent University, Kul spent 10 months in prison on charges of...
Primary school teacher, dismissed in post-coup purge, dies of cancer
Bekir Gürcan, a primary school teacher from the western province of Manisa who was dismissed as part of the Turkish government's post-coup purge of state institutions, died of cancer. Gürcan was diagnosed with colon cancer in December, 2018. Bold Medya reported...
Dismissed geography teacher dies as construction worker in Turkey’s Duzce
Kazım Kurnaz, a high-school geography teacher who was dismissed by a decree issued by the Turkish government in the aftermath of a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, died on Feb 1 in a construction accident in Duzce province, MedyaBold reported this week. According to the...
Man, 2 sons drown in the Aegean Sea off Turkey: report
A man and his two children died on Thursday after attempting to reach Greece in a boat that probably sank off the Aegean island of Samos close to Turkey’s coast, Reuters reported, citing a Greek official. The Greek coast guard was alerted about a boat in distress in...