Faces of Manisa prisoners rendered unrecognizable due to torture, lawyer says
Date posted: October 8, 2016
The faces of people held in a Manisa prison have become unrecognizable due to heavy torture, Seda Tanrıkulu, a lawyer representing some of the prisoners, told the Turkish media.
“When I met with prisoners, there were bruises on the face of D.K., made by the boots of officials,” Tanrıkulu said.
Stating that prison guards reportedly banged the heads of prisoners on the wall with their hands cuffed behind their backs, she added, “The face of O.K. was unrecognizable due scars made by nightsticks.”
“Political [prisoners] are being subjected to torture,” said a man under arrest, in an obvious cry for help, as he was being forced into a police car after a medical checkup in Manisa province, earlier this week.
Apart from those already under arrest, Turkey has detained 51,000 people and arrested 27,000 others over alleged links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt, over the past two-and-a-half-months.
CHP: Anti-Hizmet ops were part of agreement between Erdoğan, military
Main opposition Republican People’s Democratic Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Barış Yarkadaş has said the release of suspects in the historic Ergenekon trial and the government-initiated operations against the Hizmet movement were part of an agreement between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish military.
Turkish PM Erdoğan’s rhetoric and reality
One of the main problems that Turkish and foreign interlocutors of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan complain of is that he employs fiery rhetoric, with a special emphasis on drama, to score points with his home base of political Islamists, a narrow minority within his popular ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
Right to dissent in Turkey
The primary reason why members of Hizmet (Service), a faith-based social movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, have been attacked, vilified and stigmatized by a government that is dominated by overzealous political Islamists and pro-Iranian sympathizers is that Gülen is standing up to the increasingly authoritarian powers of Erdoğan, who has seized control of the republic’s institutions including the judiciary, leading to increased polarization and tension in Turkish society.
Alevi problems deeper than they seem, opinion leaders agree
On the first day of the 30th Abant Platform meeting on Friday on the Alevis issue in Turkey, Alevi and Sunni intellectuals and opinion leaders agreed that the problems date back to centuries ago and are more complicated than they seem. The event, titled “Searching for peace and a future together,” brought together representatives of various Alevi communities as well as Alevi and Sunni pundits, journalists and academics in an effort to have a comprehensive debate on one of the lingering problems of Turkish society.
Islamism is dead!
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is a political party; for this reason, it views the Islamic references it relies on as political ideology. The Gülen movement, on the other hand, is a social movement that mobilizes religiosity and uses it as a source of energy.
Bosnia rejects Turkey’s extradition request for journalist over Gülen links
The Justice Ministry of Bosnia and Herzegovina has put an end to Turkey’s persistent efforts to have a journalist living exile extradited to Turkey on trumped-up terrorism charges, setting a strong precedent for other Turkish citizens resident in Bosnia who are being harassed and threatened with prosecution in Turkey.
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