Opposition deputy: Police detain one more woman shortly after delivery

Date posted: September 9, 2017

B.Ö., a Turkish woman who gave birth on Thursday in the Turkish province of Adana, was detained ealy later the same day over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, which the Turkish government accuses of masterminding

The woman and her one-day-old baby were reportedly taken to the Adana police station for interrogation.

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, a Turkish deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has called on Turkish authorities to stop the practice of detaining women hours after giving birth due to their alleged links to the Gülen group.

Tanrıkulu posted several photos of B.A. and police officers who were pictured while waiting outside of the woman’s room at Adana Ortadoğu Hospital, and said: “B.A gave birth at Adana Ortadoğu Hospital this morning. [Police] awaits just outside to detain her. Do not tyrannize the mothers”

B.Ö. Adana Ortadoğu Hastanesinde sezaryanla bu sabah doğum yaptı.Gözaltı için kapsında bekleniliyor.Annelere bu zulmü yapmayın.@TC_Basbakan pic.twitter.com/gMwvYX25Jw

— Sezgin Tanrıkulu (@MSTanrikulu) September 7, 2017

This is not the first-time Turkish police have waited outside a hospital room to detain a woman who just had a baby, as part of an nation-wide investigation against followers of the Gülen group.

In July, Rümeysa Doğan in an Antalya hospital and Ayşe Kaya from Edirne were detained by police after delivery.

On June 2, Elif Aslaner, a religious education teacher who gave birth to a baby May 31 at a private hospital in Bursa, was detained due to alleged links to the Gülen movement, which Turkish government accuse of masterminding a failed coup last summer.

In May, Aysun Aydemir, an English teacher who gave birth to a baby in an elective cesarean procedure, was detained at the hospital and subsequently arrested by a court and put in pretrial detention with a 3-day-old baby in Zonguldak province as part of the witch-hunt targeting the Gülen movement.

In late January, Fadime Günay, who gave birth to a baby, was detained by police at Antalya’s Alanya Başkent Hospital for alleged links to the Gülen movement.

In early January, Ş.A., a former private school teacher and mother of a week-old premature infant, was taken into police custody over links to the movement while she was on her way to the hospital to feed the baby.

A day after Ş.A. was taken into police custody, another woman known as Meryem gave birth to twins by C-section at a hospital in Konya and was detained by police despite hospital reports said that she should not travel and was taken to Aksaray from Konya in a police car.

According to recent data released by the Ministry of Justice, 568 children aged between 0 to 6 are being held in prison along with their parents.Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.