Report: Police chief sets up teams to torture post-coup detainees


Date posted: February 28, 2017

Zonguldak Police Chief Osman Ak, who was appointed to his post with a decree issued by the Turkish government after a coup attempt on July 15, has ordered that teams composed of police officers be set up to torture people detained over links to the Gülen movement, the Aktifhaber.com reported on Monday.

According to the report, victims detained by the torture teams are taken to either a police station or a mountain area for interrogation.

One of the team’s victims, identified by the initials A.T., told the news website that he was in detention for 28 days and that he had been beaten every single day until he fainted.

“The day I was detained, five police officers took me to a mountain and beat the hell out of me. I have been kicked in the head and genital area tens of times. I managed to identify two of the torturers. One of them was called Nejdet and the other one was Battal. Yet, maybe they use nicknames…. I do not have strength to tell you about all the humiliating sexual torture I faced that night,” he said.

Police chief Ak initially came to public attention when he was dismissed from profession in the late 1990s after he was accused of engaging in spying and illegal wiretapping of at least 963 high-ranking state officials, including the country’s prime minister and president.

In the aftermath of the 1997 military memorandum, the decisions issued by the Turkish military leadership to force Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan to end of his coalition government, Ak was assigned to prepared a “secretive” comprehensive report about the Gulen movement’s activities in the country.

In 2001, Ak took the stand as a witness against Fethullah Gulen during a hearing in 2011 and accused him for the first time as being a “hashashi,” a term derived from the Arabic word for “assassin” and refers to 11th-century assassins that posed a strong threat to the Sunni Seljuk Empire.

The very same term was adopted and frequently used by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a massive corruption scandal that implicated then-ministers of the Cabinet erupted on Dec. 17, 2013.

Since then, Erdoğan and the AK Party government claimed that the graft investigation was a “coup attempt” against his government and accused the Gülen movement of being behind it.

The sons of ministers, well-known business people, a district mayor, a director of a state-owned bank, and many high-profile figures, who were arrested as part of the investigation, were released and the prosecutors who initiated the case were later imprisoned as a result of political interference. However, four Cabinet ministers were forced to resign.

Source: Turkey Purge , February 28, 2017


Related News

All colors of Diyarbakir came together over Iftar

Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Mr. Eker praised that people from all walks life in Diyarbakir are represented at the Iftar. He said Turkey’s regime had problems with his own people. The state had divided its people into races, colors and ethnicities, which created problems. “We have made important progress for the solution in the last seven months, we wish that the settlement process will end with peace,” he added.

They busted the house of a deceased teacher to take her under custody

Parents of Didem took a grief-stricken breath when they saw the police squad holding custody document which is written Didem’s name on it and they said “If you want to take her under custody you should go to cemetery. Didem is dead, my son.”

Scholars at Abant Meeting call for EU negotiations, domestic reform

Menekse Tokyay for Southeast European Times As Turkey’s EU bid has stalled, a group of prominent scholars agree that negotiations can only proceed if Turkey advances democracy, drafts a new civilian constitution and resolves of the Kurdish issue. The Abant Platform has long been a progressive force in Turkey, bringing together intellectuals to debate and […]

The Turkish Connection: Pak-Turk Schools

The network of [Pak-Turk] of schools came under the media scanner last month, after the Turkish government demanded that Pakistan close down the entire network following the failed army coup to overthrow Turkish President Erdogan. Since then, Erdogan has ordered a ruthless purge and arrest of anyone even suspected of having links with his political rival, Fethullah Gülen, whom Erdogan holds responsible for the coup attempt.

Turkish groups call for global peace at historic İstanbul meeting

Inspired by esteemed Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, Turkish activists have established intercultural and interfaith organizations in more than 100 countries all around the world. The primary objective of these organizations is to encourage tolerance and build bridges across different ethnic and religious groups.

Reflections from the US

In the past three weeks, the AK Party has proposed new laws to increase government controls over judges and prosecutors, and many investigations have slowed down, raising suspicions that the government might be trying to hide something.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Hizmet is rooted in the culture of dialogue

Communists in Cold War, reactionaries in Feb. 28 coup and Gülenists in Erdoğan era

Turkey, The great purge – Four lives upturned by Erdogan’s ‘cleansing.’ Episode 4 – Betul

Turks caught up in Gulenists crackdown seek justice

Gov’t targets Hizmet to distract attention from corruption, says director

Turkish American Society Builds Bridges

‘If I had the power, I would let Turks take charge of our schools’

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News