Teachers detained on coup charges while casting votes in referendum
Date posted: April 17, 2017
A.A. and T.D., two teachers who were earlier dismissed from their posts as part of a post-coup crackdown on the Gülen movement, were taken into custody on Sunday at a school in Malatya where they stopped to cast their votes in a referendum on a switch to an executive presidency.
Turks are voting on whether to shift from a parliamentary system of governance to an executive presidency that is expected to give sweeping powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Malatya police detained A.A. and T.D. over links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt. The movement strongly denies the accusation.
Meanwhile, E.O. a former partner of a private school that was closed down by the government after July 15 over similar charges was also taken into custody in Trabzon’s Arsin district.
Police also detained F.G. in Malatya while 4 others were taken into custody in Adana due to alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near the polling place.
In August 2017, the news outlet TR724 revealed that there are 668 children under the age of six in Turkey’s prisons. 149 of these children are under twelve months old, and there are many others under the age of eighteen. These statistics are even more appalling when one considers the horrible prison conditions and extent of torture in post-coup Turkey.
Turkish Gov’t Unveils 16 Ways to Identify Gulenists [as Terrorists]
Turkish authorities have finally come up with a detailed set of measures and criteria to identify suspected Gulenists. After its publication and prime minister’s announcement, critics argued that this presents a perfect textbook of fascism as the government justifies its actions, purges on ludicrous charges devoid of a legal base in universal standards and even country’s current laws.
Panicky parents calmed over Feza Schools closure reports
The director assured the public that claims linking the institution to an alleged terror network were grossly untrue and a fabrication made with the intention of spoiling its image. “Our schools have no link with any terror group, we are a local registered charity organisation where every single sent obtained from schools fee is used for the redevelopment of the schools,” he added.
Fear Grows in Turkey as Crackdown on Gulen Followers Continues
The Turkish authorities are continuing their crackdown on followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is being blamed for a failed military coup attempt. With tens of thousands of people arrested, opposition parties are starting to voice concern that the crackdown is turning into a witch hunt.
The gravest-ever smear
The erstwhile political Islamists — who would frequently utter the slogan “Every day is Ashura and everywhere is Karbala,” referring to the tragic incident in Islamic history when the Prophet Muhammad’s grandsons, Hasan and Husain, as well as those who accompanied them, were ambushed and slaughtered near Karbala in Iraq — apparently stick today to the formula “Every day is a lie and everywhere is a smear.”
Criminal complaint filed against media organizations publishing Gülen’s speeches
An organization called the Law and Democracy Foundation which was established by lawyer Mehmet Ali Canlı, a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) hopeful in the June 7 general election, on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint against media organizations that publish the speeches of Fethullah Gülen, a renowned Islamic scholar.
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