Arrested After Giving Birth: Turkey’s Post-coup Crackdown Reportedly Hits Maternity Wards


Date posted: August 1, 2017

In just over a year since a coup attempt failed to overthrow Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over 50,000 have been arrested and 100,000 fired from their jobs in a government crackdown.

Politicians, activists and journalists have been key targets in the post-coup purge. Many of those detained have been accused of links to US-based Fethullah Gülen, blamed by Erdogan for ordering last year’s coup, a charge he denies.

Following the abortive putsch on July 15 2016, allegations of unfair trials, using torture in prisons and holding suspects without trial have been made against Erdogan’s government.

And now, it has been alleged that Turkey is arresting women accused of links to the Gülen movement immediately after they give birth.

Turkey Purge, a website set up to monitor post-coup rights abuses, claimed on Monday that in the last nine months, 17 women had been taken into Turkish police custody while pregnant or shortly after having a baby. Three of those arrests took place in the last week, the site suggested.

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, an MP from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) raised the issue in a series of tweets earlier on Monday, Turkey Purge reported.

A human rights lawyer specializing in defending Turkish Kurds, Tanrıkulu called on Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to “stop sending police to hospital rooms to detain woman right after their babies are delivered.”

Tanrıkulu shared pictures of women he claimed had been arrested from their hospital beds in the last few days.

Sultan Çetintaş, reportedly arrested in İzmir after giving birth.

Rümeysa Doğan, allegedly arrested after her baby was born in an Antalya hospital.

He also reported that Ayşe Kaya from Edirne was sent to jail “as her four-day-old baby was given to its grandmother.”

These are in addition, Turkey Purge suggests, to similar arrests in January, May and June, including a case involving the mother of a week-old premature infant and multiple instances of mothers recovering from Cesarean procedures. Many of these were school teachers.

Recent Turkish Ministry of Justice data shows that more than 2,250 mothers are currently held in Turkish penal institutions, Turkey Purge reports. Among those, 520 are raising children under six in prison.

The Turkey Purge site is run by “a small group of young journalists who are trying to be the voice for Turkish people who suffer under an oppressive regime,” it claims. The website is banned in Turkey, and the journalists all contribute from outside of the country.

In an interview with the European Center for Press and Media Freedom, the group said that they do not have “editorial connection to anybody”, while indicating that their readership is mostly drawn from “Kurds, Gulenists, Alevis, leftists and LGBT activists”.

Source: Albawaba , August 1, 2017

Tags: | | | | |


Related News

[Cafe Capital] Excessive attempts to manipulate people’s perceptions to backfire

The tension caused by a Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) bill that is designed to restructure the HSYJ, the witch-hunts against police officers, teachers and other public employees who have been profiled as members of the Hizmet community (Gülen movement) and the victimization of tens of thousands of people have created unease among the general public. People started reacting negatively to the accusations and slander, which went far beyond the limits of criticism against the Hizmet community, and started saying: “This is too much!

In controversial move Parliament votes to shut down prep schools

The removal of prep schools, however, remains an unsettled dispute, with opponents to the bill saying that without eliminating standardized testing for university entrance, the move will only serve to hamper the poorer high school students’ plans to attend universities, as socioeconomic disparity shows itself in exam results.

Gov’t to destroy 216K math, science textbooks published by Hizmet affiliated publishers

Turkey’s Education Ministry has decided to destroy at least 216,233 copies of math and science textbooks published by publishing houses affiliated with the Gülen movement, according to Hürriyet daily.

TÜBİTAK official says forced to make changes to bugging device report

The former head of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey’s (TÜBİTAK) Research Center for Advanced Technologies on Informatics and Information Security (BİLGEM) has said he was forced to make changes in a report as part of an investigation into a “bugging device” found at the prime minister’s office.

Erdogan’s Maarif Foundation To Contribute Radicalism, Exacerbate Muslim-Christian Tension In African Countries

Turkey’s President Erdoğan has aimed at replacing the positive contributions of the schools opened by the Gülen movement in Africa to preventing clashes in countries, where there is Christian-Muslim tension, with radical Islamist rhetoric and thus will create conflict rather than dialogue in African countries, stated a report recently released.

What can Christians learn from a global Islamic movement?

Clearly, the Gülen movement is reeling from the campaign against it in Turkey. However, it has been a genuinely international movement for many years. As it struggles in Turkey, it may well flourish elsewhere among those who react against Erdoğan’s vitriolic campaign against Gülen.

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

NBA star Enes Kanter on faith, basketball and political activism

Sweden delays sending back Erdogan dissenters

Suspicious deaths, suicides become common occurrence in post-coup Turkey

Fethullah Gulen — A view from Israel

When lawlessness becomes a way of life

Will Gülen movement become a political party?

Turkey’s Reichstag Fire

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News