4-year-old visits dad in jail on Children’s Day wearing T-shirt with newborn brother’s picture
Date posted: April 24, 2017
We can all pack up and go home because a 4-year-old has just rendered Turkey’s Children’s Day meaningless.
Minutes before paying a visit to her jailed father early on Sunday morning, H.A. was photographed in front of Sakarya L Type Prison wearing a T-shirt bearing a photo of her newborn baby brother.
She couldn’t bring the infant himself to visit due to regulations; therefore, his photo was printed on her T-shirt to show the imprisoned father his newborn son.
The father was reportedly arrested as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which is accused of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
The movement denies any involvement.
However, the government has so far investigated around 90,000 people and jailed more than 47,000 over links to the group. Prisoners in such investigations include teachers, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, students, plumbers, football players, actors and even a comedian.
Erdoğan says his gov’t will carry out ‘witch hunt’
There are rumors that the only criteria behind these purges is links to a “parallel state,” a term the government has been using to define the Hizmet movement, which is a grassroots movement based on voluntary participation to spread interfaith dialogue and tolerance, with a particular emphasis on education.
Questions over corruption and paralysis of politics [in Turkey]
The corruption crisis, the related ongoing judicial process and PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s stance towards this process have led many people to have serious concerns over justice and the latest developments have made me pose the following questions. I think that we strongly need honestly speaking and honestly thinking politicians to answer these questions for the sake of liberal democracy and universal values such as rule of law.
University of Florida and the failed coup in Turkey
On July 15 in Istanbul, Turkey, soldiers closed the two bridges across the Bosphorus, the first indication that elements of the army were planning to remove the government of President Recip Tayyip Erdogan. In Ankara, the national capital, other soldiers took control of television stations and shelled the parliament building. President Erdogan had to use […]
Liberal Turkish Journalists Champion Freedom of Expression, to a Degree
It’s precisely opposition journalists who have been criticized by colleagues who until recently worked for the newspapers of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen. These colleagues accuse the opposition journalists of betraying freedom of expression. One of them is Sevgi Akarcesme who was editor-in-chief of the Turkish English-language daily Today’s Zaman. There is a great deal of truth in Akarcesme’s claims. But who today would dare defend journalists identified with Gulen?
Kimse Yok Mu head: Council of State confirms charity’s transparency
According to İsmail Cingöz, president of the charity Kimse Yok Mu, the Council of State’s unanimous annulment of a recent Cabinet decision to rescind the charity’s right to collect donations confirms its institutional transparency, accountability and reliability.
Kimse Yok Mu waits weeks for aid campaign go-ahead
Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There?) has been waiting 37 days for permission from the İstanbul Governor’s Office to continue seven aid campaigns bringing various kinds of relief and services to people in need around the world.
Latest News
Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison
Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney
Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement
ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment
New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement
European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests
ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases
Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade
Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet
In Case You Missed It
Fate of Pak-Turk Schools: Erdogan, Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Maa’rif Foundation?
Educational unions lash out against gov’t-backed school raids
Could assassination attempts be made against politicians?
Kyrgyz court overturns extradition of suspected Gülenists to Turkey
Peace Islands Institute hosts iftar in NY
What’s not to love in this coup?
Turkish PM Yıldırım names July 15 coup attempt as ‘project’ he did not like
