Turkey Continues Its Witch Hunt Against Gülen Followers
Photos of the individuals arrested and detained. Source: Turkish Minute.
Date posted: September 3, 2016
MICHAEL VAN DER GALIEN
The purges continue unabated in Turkey. On Friday, 218 individuals were arrested on charges of being members of a terrorist organization. Another 421 were detained.
These arrests and detentions took place more than 6 weeks after the Turkish military staged a failed coup. In the meantime, not only the military officers responsible for the coup have been arrested, but the same goes for many others: people who had absolutely nothing to do with the coup, but who are simply accused of sympathizing with Fethullah Gülen, the Islamic scholar Turkey says masterminded the coup.
In what’s becoming a repetitive story, a host of journalists, lawyers, teachers and civil servants were among those arrested by the authorities.
All in all, more than 41,000 people have been detained in recent weeks, and more than 22,000 individuals were arrested. According to the latest reports, a sum total of 130,000 people have lost their jobs.
In the wake of the 2016 coup attempt, torture and abusive and degrading treatment are again becoming the norm in Turkish prisons, rather than the exception, Turkish news site Diken said on Tuesday.
Pro-Gov’t Columnist Suggests Setting Turkey’s Silivri Prison Ablaze To Kill Inmates From Gülen Movement
Fatih Tezcan, a pro-government public speaker and columnist, said in a video message posted on social media that people should gather in front of Silivri Prison, which mainly hosts people jailed over links to the Gülen movement, and set it on fire, similar to the Madımak Hotel in Sivas when an angry mob in 1993 torched the hotel, killing 37 people, mostly members of the Alevi sect.
UN Human Rights: Turkey should promptly end its protracted state of emergency
Routine extensions of the state of emergency in Turkey have led to profound human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people – from arbitrary deprivation of the right to work and to freedom of movement, to torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detentions and infringements of the rights to freedom of association and expression, according to a report* issued by the UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday.
SCF Reveals Mass Torture And Abuse In An Unofficial Detention Facility In Turkey’s Capital
“I heard all kinds of curse and swearing against my family during the interrogation. They threatened me with raping my family members. I saw one man who had a black eye on his eyes. I witnessed another man as having difficulty in walking because police shoved a baton into his anus. So many victims have marks in their bodies from abuse and torture.”
Ambassador says US having difficulty in seeing clear criterion in anti-Gülen operations
Speaking to a group of reporters in Istanbul on Friday, Bass said although the Turkish government insists that the anti-coup measures it has taken against followers of the Gülen movement are proportionate, it is difficult see that the Turkish government is taking its actions based on a clear criterion. Bass said the US was having difficulty in assessing whether the measures are proportionate and reasonable.
Turkey’s anti-Gulen crackdown continues with Yemeni students after Nigerians
Turkish authorities have deported 5 Yemeni students at official universities which the authorities have recently shut down for links with US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Tens of Yemeni students in Turkey are facing the risk of deportation for being students at universities administered by Fethullah Gulen’s movement.
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