A Year Ago Today: Teacher Gökhan Açıkkollu died of torture on his 13th day in police custody


Date posted: August 5, 2017

Gökhan Açıkkollu, a history teacher suffering from diabetes, died of torture in police custody as part of a post-coup investigation into Turkey’s Gülen group, which the Turkish government accuses of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

Detained on July 23, 2016, Gokhan was a history teacher at a state-run high school in Istanbul’s Umraniye district. According to his father, Ayhan Açıkkollu, Gökhan was a diabetics patient while human rights defenders hinted at torture and maltreatment.

The 42-year-old teacher spent 13 days under detention before he died. His body was buried in a cemetery in the central Anatolian province of Konya while the local imam refused to lead the funeral ceremony. According to media, the family was not even provided a funeral coach for the transportation for 710 kilometers between Istanbul and Konya.

A video interview with the father on Aug 5, 2016, which was widely shared on social media on the first anniversary of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, reveals that the deceased teacher was not even given proper funeral service by the state-financed mosques.

The officials let the father bury his son only in the Traitors’ Cemetery, otherwise, the teacher’s body was not allowed in Istanbul, the grieved father tells during the video.

In the very aftermath of the failed coup, Kadir Topbas, the mayor of Istanbul’s metropolitan municipality, declared his intent to create a separate plot to bury the corpses of soldiers by saying: “I ordered a space to be saved and to call it ‘the graveyard for traitors.’ The passersby will curse the ones buried there. …Everyone visiting the place will curse them and they won’t be able to rest in their graves.”

 

Source: Turkey Purge , August 5, 2017

Tags: | | |


Related News

Fethullah Gulen, the [Gulen] community, and the prep schools

It is no secret that my bonds of affection with the wise religious leader Fethullah Gulen and his movement go back more than twenty years. I trust that Hocaefendi, with his endless sense of fairness, is aware of this situation. He feels offended firstly because the government signed the National Security Council’s brief without hesitation, and secondly because it has profiled [both him and the movement]. In any case, resisting the closure of the movement’s prep schools is the same as resisting an authoritarian course of events!

Turkey crackdown: Gulen sympathizers abroad are feeling the heat

Turkey’s relentless pursuit of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen’s supporters during the past four months – both at home and abroad – has now resulted in Turkish military personnel serving at NATO bases seeking asylum, fearing persecution if they return home.

Education [for Kurds] in mother tongue

The Wise People Commission has prepared a report on its two months of work and submitted it to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. What does Turkey — east and west — think about the settlement? What are the basic expectations and demands? How will concerns that the country could be partitioned be eliminated? Will Turkey […]

Disabled teacher, husband removed from job as brothers under arrest

Fatma Koyun, a teacher with an 82 percent physical disability who was dismissed from his job as part of a post-coup investigation, says her husband as well as her brothers have been under arrest for months.

Enes Kanter: Anyone who speaks out against Erdogan is a target. That includes me.

The situation in Turkey has been very bad since a failed coup attempt in 2016. Erdogan unleashed a massive purge, firing more than 100,000 public-sector workers and imprisoning more than 50,000 people. These people are not criminals. They include judges, academics and journalists. Erdogan thinks free speech is dangerous, and he accuses critics of being terrorists.

Turkish purges leave armed forces weak, dismissed officer warns

NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, said in December that he never had any reason to suspect that Turkish officers in his teams would be involved in a coup attempt. In their absence, and without their expertise, the capacity of his staff had been “degraded,” he told the Financial Times and Deutsche Welle.

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

Afghan Turk schools gained great success at university exam

Muslims, Jews start new tradition in Forest Hills

Media and education challenge in Afghanistan

Condemnation and condolence message on occasion of the terror attack against a school bus in Mogadishu, Somalia

As Turks flee oppression, Ottawa urged to speak out on human rights issues

Turkish Scholar Fethullah Gulen Speaks about PKK

Romanian gov’t congratulates Turkish schools for international achievements

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News