‘My 5-month old son is slowly going blind in prison,’ says jailed mother


Date posted: August 2, 2017

Betül Selçuk, a physics teacher who has been held in pretrial detention for almost 11 months over alleged links to the Gülen movement, has told her lawyer that her 5-month-old son, Mehmet Selim, is slowly going blind in prison due to overheating and unhygienic conditions, the Haberdar news website reported.

“Extremely high temperatures and unsanitary conditions in the prison caused an infection. He cries all the time, and this makes the situation way worse. He was taken to an eye doctor at Tarsus State Hospital, and the doctor said my son is experiencing a loss of vision. He needs immediate treatment,” the mother said.

Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen group and initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the group from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

Betül Selçuk and her husband Abdurrahman Selçuk were arrested over their alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group. As a result their son, Mehmet Selim, has been staying with his mother in Tarsus prison for months.

Hundreds of human tragedies in Turkey have been reported to date. According to recent data released by the Ministry of Justice, more than 6,000 women are held in penal institutions, constituting around 9 percent of the total prison population in Turkey.

A total of 2,258 of them are mothers, of whom 520 are obliged to raise their 0 to 6-year-old children in prison.
A witch-hunt started by the Turkish government in the aftermath of the coup attempt on July 15, 2016 against people affiliated with the Gülen group has done nothing but cause more tragedies for mothers with children.

 

Source: Turkey Purge , August 2, 2017


Related News

Turkish FM calls on Gülen Movement for dialogue to find way out political crisis

Delivering constructive messages to move away from political crisis over the graft probe, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has invited the Fetullah Gülen movement to engage in “dialogue and a strategic look toward the horizon.”

Michael Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, was paid to investigate Fethullah Gulen during election campaign

Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, acted as a foreign agent representing the interests of Turkey’s government in exchange for more than $500,000 during last year’s campaign even as he was advising Mr. Trump. Mr. Flynn was assigned to investigate Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania.

Erdogan on a mission to seek allies more than trading partners

Erdogan wants the Gulen-linked schools in Africa to be closed down, although they are the very educational establishments which are popular with Africa’s middle class. They have sprung up all over Africa in recent years. They are an affordable alternative to French schools.

Turkish citizens in Arkansas face uncertain futures

Director of the Peace Keeping and Human Rights Program at Columbia University David Phillips says surveillance is possibly going on here in the US, even in Arkansas. “There are widespread reports that Turkey’s national intelligence agency is recruiting informants in order to identify so-called Gulenists or opponents of the regime.”

A Turkish couple spent their wedding day feeding 4,000 Syrian refugees

Hatice Avci, a spokesperson for aid organisation Kimse Yok Mu, told i100.co.uk that last Thursday the newlyweds donated the savings their families had put together for a party to share their wedding celebrations with the refugees living in and around the town of Kilis.

Calgary man accused of helping plot Turkish coup

The photo that reportedly shows Hanci with Gulen is not actually Hanci. Hanci works as an imam for Corrections Canada and Alberta Government Correctional Services, according to Malik Muradov, executive director of the Intercultural Dialogue Institute of Calgary, who added that he also volunteers much of his time to the Turkish community.

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

Abant Platform Proposes Mother Tongue Education

Boston Globe: Fethullah Gulen, a US resident wanted by Turkey, must be protected

Deputy PM of Turkey visits Gulen-inspired school in Yemen

Erdogan’s Private Youth Army

It is unfair, unjust and politically motivated to incriminate the Gulen Movement

Purge-victim businessman sent back to prison a week after stomach cancer surgery: son

Pathology of ‘Islamicist’ Erdogan Regime

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News