Dismissed policeman detained while applying to post-coup rights commission
Date posted: August 5, 2017
I.K., a former deputy police chief in Gaziantep’s Sehitkamil district who was dismissed in the government’s post-coup crackdown, was detained when he visited a local State of Emergency (OHAL) commission in Sivas to reclaim his rights.
The government earlier established OHAL commissions across the country in order to investigate applications directly related to the loss of state jobs through post-coup emergency decrees. Meanwhile, human rights defenders say that commissions were set up only to avoid possible penalties from the European Court of Human Rights (EctHR).
State-run Anadolu agency reported on Saturday that I.K. was subjected to criminal record check at the entrance of the commission’s office even before he managed to submit his application. Anadolu said I.K. has long been under investigation and an an arrest warrant was earlier issued against him as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement.
The government accuses the movement of leading the July 15, 2016 coup attempt while the latter denies involvement. More than 145,000 people have lost their jobs since last summer while the government detained over 120,000 and arrested some 50,000 over ties to the movement.
I.K. was detained after the criminal check and was put in pretrial detention.
As a law-abiding citizen, I knew I had done nothing wrong to be stopped at the border. But in Turkey being a journalist from Zaman media group was enough for me to be considered an “enemy of the state.” And I was the editor-in-chief of Today’s Zaman which had been brutally taken over a few days earlier, earning me a suspended jail sentence for my tweets criticizing then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
Who is the winner?
The Gülen community is a movement of volunteers. The real reason for the row is not the community’s attempt to meddle in politics. It is due to its sheer size and public image. As he did with other groups or communities, Erdoğan sought to take full control of the Hizmet movement in an effort to consolidate his power. Following the defeat of the military tutelage, the government saw a convergence of power. However, the Hizmet movement was not a piece of cake which it could swallow easily. The government had previously purged itself of many bureaucrats who are close to the community.
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