Human Tragedies of Turkey’s Purge
Police officer suspended in post-coup crackdown dies of heart attack
Şahabettin Erdoğan, a 45-year-old former police officer who was suspended over his alleged ties to the Gulen movement, has passed away following a heart attack, according to media. Erdoğan headed to Ortaca State Hospital in Mugla after he felt a strong pain in his...
Mother of this child gets 7.5 years in prison for working at Gulen-affilated student dorm in Ankara
Suna Uslu, 29-year old Turkish woman and the mother of 1.5-year-old Asım Uslu (pictured above) has been sentenced to 7,5 years in prison for working at a now-closed student dormitory affiliated with the Gülen group, which is accused of masterminding a coup attempt in...
Purged computer teacher commits suicide days after his release from prison
Mehmet Kosar, a father of two and a 38-year-old computer teacher in Mugla’s Fethiye who was dismissed from his job over links to the Gulen movement, has killed himself days after he was released from prison pending trial over connections to Gulenists. Local...
Pregnant teacher, husband reportedly under police custody for 7 days
A Sinop teacher, pregnant to her second child, as well as her husband have been under police custody for the past 7 days, according to a social media account. @Magduriyet_TR1 , a Twitter account claimed to have knowledge on the matter, said Monday that the teacher,...
Cellmate of deceased teacher: They kneed him in the back. He held his chest until the day he died due to severe pain
An expert in forensic medicine who shared a cell with Gökhan Açıkkollu, a teacher who was tortured to death while under detention in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016, has said the teacher was hurt more by the insults than the physical...
Purged, forced to flee, dead: The tragic story of Turkish family that drowned off the shores of Turkey
Ayşe Abdurrezzak, a 37-year-old teacher who was dismissed from her job after a coup attempt in July 126, and her children Abdulkadir Enes Abdurrezzak (11) and Halil Munir Abdurrezzak (3) died on Feb. 13, 2018 after a boat carrying a group of eight capsized in the...
Dismissed, jailed, tortured to death, exonerated: The tragic story of Turkish teacher who died in police custody
Gökhan Açıkkollu was a history teacher in İstanbul. What makes him memorable is that he is one of the hunreds of thousands of people who have been victimized by an ongoing purge carried out by the Turkish government since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016....
4 died, 1 injured in traffic accident following visit to family member in prison: report
Four members of a Turkish family were killed in a car crash while driving back from an Erzurum prison where another member of the family is being held as a post-coup prisoner, Aktif Haber online news portal said Thursday. Four members of the Aydin family died while a...
History teacher, died of torture in police custody, reinstated to job 19 months after his death
Gökhan Açıkkollu, a history teacher who was tortured to death while in police custody in the wake of a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 over alleged membership in the Gülen group, was found innocent one-and-a-half years later and “reinstated” to his job. The...
5-months pregnant woman detained as police fail to locate husband: report
A Samsun woman, identified as B.D. was detained after police failed to locate her husband as part an investigation in to the Gulen movement, media reported Saturday. According to Grihat online news portal, B.D., already a mother of three, was detained after a police...
Teacher with 25 years of experience working as hotel receptionist after dismissal
Ismet Sözen, an elementary school teacher until he was dismissed by a government decree issued under post-coup emergency rule in 2016, is now earning his keep by working as a night-shift receptionist at a hotel in Bursa province. According to Cumhuriyet newspaper,...
Teacher couple jailed as newborn twins under grandmother’s care: report
An Izmir couple, both teachers, were put in pretrial detention over their links to the Gulen movement as grand family members are now parenting their newborn twins and 7-year-old daughter, according to media. The physics teacher, identified as O.K. was detained along...
17-year-old disabled boy shot dead by mother as father under arrest in post-coup crackdown
Eyüp Öztürk, a 17-year-old boy with 99-percent disability was shot dead by his mother S.B., media said Friday. Denizli mother killed herself after shooting her son in the head who had cerebral palsy –permanent movement disorder caused by damaged brain...
UK-educated computer science professor, jailed for 13 months, dies of liver cancer
Ahmet Turan Özcerit, a UK-educated computer science professor who spent as long as 13 months under arrest as part of the government’s post-coup witch hunt, has passed away of liver cancer. The academic’s son Sinan Özcerit said Monday that his father died at hospital....
Another ‘Gülenist’ dies of heart attack in prison: report
Vahyettin Yahya Bayat, a 65-year-old Turkish businessman under arrest as part of an investigation into the Gulen group, passed away after a heart attack on Friday morning, the TR724 news portal reported. Bayat lost his life in his cell in Diyarbakır Prison following a...
Dismissed police officer dies of heart attack in German refugee camp: report
Ali Ünlü, a 42-year-old former police officer who was earlier dismissed from his job as part of the government’s post-coup crackdown, died of heart attack in a refugee camp in Stuttgart, according to media and people with knowledge of the incident. Ünlü, one of over...
Post-coup victim dies following explosion at firework company: report
A Nigde man who was left unemployed as part of the government’s post-coup crackdown has died following an explosion at a fireworks factory, according to media. Dogan news agency said an explosion at a fireworks plant in Nigde’s Kemerhisar neighborhood killed two...
Soldiers wait outside delivery room to take woman back to prison after birth: deputy
A group of soldiers from the Turkish army are reportedly waiting outside the delivery room in İzmir’s Çiğli state hospital in order to take ‘Gülenist’ Ayşe Ateş back to prison after giving birth, according to main opposition Republican People’s Party...
Purge-victim dies of multiple sclerosis weeks after being released from prison
Mesut Dinçer, a former court clerk dismissed and later arrested by the Turkish government over coup charges, has died of multiple sclerosis (MS) several weeks after he was released from prison pending trial, the TR724 news portal reported. Dinçer was dismissed from...
Jailed father allowed to attend son’s funeral in handcuffs
Jailed father of Berk Görmez, a 14-year-old boy who died of intestinel cancer last week, could attend his son’s funeral only with his hands cuffed during the ceremony. “They did not take off Bekir Gormez’s handcuffs during the funeral for his son Berk Gormez who died...
Lawyer put behind bars along with 3-month-old baby: report
An Istanbul lawyer, identified with her initials O.E.H., was put in pretrial detention along with her three-month-old baby as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement, media said. According to TR724 online news portal, O.E.H. stopped by the Tokat police...
Mother with 25-day-old baby allegedly jailed on coup charges in İstanbul
Halime Kaman, a Turkish national who gave birth some 25 days ago at an İstanbul hospital, was reportedly arrested by an İstanbul court on Friday, according to several Turkish media outlets and Twitter accounts. According to the @magduriyetlertr, Kaman gave birth...
Jailed cancer patient dies amid allegations he was denied hospital access
Jailed cancer patient, refused hospital treatment by Turkish authorities, dies A man suffering from cancer who has been jailed in Turkey for more than a year has died due to a lack of timely hospital treatment, the TR724 online news outlet reported....
48-year-old Alzheimer patient in pretrial detention for 15 months
Fatma Bektaş, a 48-year-old Izmir woman has been in pretrial detention for the past 15 months despite her medical problems including Alzheimer. Detained as part of a police raid on a Quran teaching school in Izmir on Sept 27, 2016, Bektaş spent 3 days under police...
Amid grief over jailed father, 12-year-old not responding to cancer treatment
Muhammed Eray Özkul, the 12-year-old son of the Zonguldak-based former police officer Ender Özkul who was jailed in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 failed coup, is not responding to cancer treatment, according to his mother. “The illness relapses two times during...
![[VIDEO] Cancer patient seeks whereabouts of son abducted in Turkey’s capital](https://turkeypurge.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/dsdsd-400x250.png)
[VIDEO] Cancer patient seeks whereabouts of son abducted in Turkey’s capital
The mother of Ümit Horzum, a dismissed public servant who was reportedly abducted from his car in Ankara earlier this month, has asked for help from officials, in a video recording. “My son has been missing since Dec 6. Where did they take my son? What did my son do?...
Yet another woman faces detention just after birth at hospital
Turkish police are waiting at Kahramanmaras Hayat Hospital to detain Ş.G., who just gave birth to her first baby, over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, which is accused by the Turkish government of mounting a botched coup attempt last summer, an opposition...
Father of three released only after wife died following heart attack
Engin Öztürk, a father of three who spent 15 months behind bars over his alleged ties to the Gulen movement, has been released only after his wife, Vina Öztürk passed away following a heart attack. Engin was the sole breadwinner of the Öztürk family until he was...
Archeologist, dismissed in post-coup purge, opens grocery store for a living
Heval Bozay, a teaching assistant at Nevsehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University’s Archeology department until he was dismissed by a government decree issued under post-coup emergency rule last year, is now earning his keep by operating a grocery store. Graduated from the...
Another woman detained on coup charges one day after giving birth — claim
Fatma Türkmen, who gave birth to a baby in Ankara on Monday, was reportedly detained on Tuesday over alleged links to the Gülen group, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016. According to the Twitter...
87-year old prisoner gets 11-day solitary confinement for ‘hoping release one day’
Ali Osman Karahan, an 87-year-old Turkish man who has been kept in an Isparta prison for almost 15 months over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, was given 11-day solitary confinement for relieving other inmates by saying: “if you are not guilty, you will be...
Purge-victim mother of three dies of heart attack: report
Rana Ozturk, a mother of three children and the wife of Engin Ozturk who has been under arrest for 15 months over alleged ties to the Gulen group,died several days after a heart attack, media on Nov 21. Ozturk had a hearth attack early on Saturday and dispatched to a...
Purge-victim family drowns in the Aegean Sea off Turkey: report
A Turkish family of five has reportedly drowned after a boat capsized in the Aegean Sea, off the western coast of Turkey, according to several Turkish media outlets. The victims have reportedly been sought by the Turkish government over their links to the Gülen group,...
40-day-old baby, mother under police custody for 4 days: opposition deputy
A Turkish woman who gave birth to her baby 40 days ago, has been kept under police custody along with her newborn over the past four days, according to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu. “Today marks UN’s Childrens’ Rights Day;...
Mother of three suffers heart attack as husband under arrest for 15 months
Rana Ozturk, a mother of three children and the wife of Engin Ozturk who has been under arrest for 15 months over alleged ties to the Gulen movement, suffered a heart attack, media reported on Nov 18. Engin, a former employee of the now-defunct International Antalya...
22 dismissed public servants open restaurant in Diyarbakır
A group of public servants who were fired from their jobs with decrees issued by the Turkish gov’t in the aftermath of last year’s coup attempt, has opened a restaurant in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. According to the Haberdar news portal, the 22...