Down Syndrome child accompanies mother in prison as parents jailed over Gülen links


Date posted: October 8, 2017

A 22-month-old child who suffers from Down Syndrome is living in jail along with his mother after both his mother and father were imprisoned in Konya over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, a report said on Saturday.

According to AktifHaber.com website, prison conditions are not appropriate for baby Enis, who suffered gastric bleeding when he was 8 months old and doctors had to establish vascular access for him.

Both of Enis’s parents were teachers and put in pretrial detention over alleged links to the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of being behind a failed coup last year.

Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

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.

According to a tally by TurkeyPurge.com, over 146,000 people, including teachers, academics, police officers, soldiers, judges and prosecutors, have been dismissed from government jobs, close to 127,000 detained and almost 57,000 arrested on coup charges.

Source: Turkish Minute , September 30, 2017


Related News

Draft law on prep schools

The first adverse effect is related to unemployment. The AKP did not keep its promise to provide jobs at public institutions to all the prep school teachers who are not hired by the new private schools. Only teachers with six years of experience will have the chance of being hired at public schools. Thus, tens of thousands of prep school teachers will definitely lose their jobs since only the large, well-established prep schools can take the financial risks of re-establishing themselves as a new private school.

Why the West ‘failed to understand’ Turkey

Erdoğan has exploited the presence of Gülen-inspired people in the state bureaucracy as a tool to silence all opposition and grasp yet more power. If the Gülen movement did not exist, the president would have needed to create another “enemy of the state” to fight against in order to reach his ultimate aim.

Will the AKP lose votes in disagreement with Gülen movement?

It is very likely that the real purpose of the government is indeed to punish the Gülen movement. Many political observers disagree with such a claim however, AKP officials have not find any convincing argument that will convince conservative people that the government is not punishing the Gülen movement, a movement that has touched many lives among the conservative people in the heartland of Anatolia.

Turkey’s teachers, police officers join unskilled labor force after coup purge

Many public servants, including police officers and teachers, found themselves working at unskilled jobs in the labor market after being dismissed following decrees issued by the Turkish government in the aftermath of a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

Kosovo’s Parliament To Probe Deportation Of Six Turks

Kosovo’s parliament on April 4 voted to establish a panel to investigate how and why six Turkish citizens who are opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were arrested and deported to Turkey.

Why is the Gulen movement’s statement on press freedom significant?

BÜLENT KENEŞ As Turkey slows down its democratization and liberalization reforms, and occasionally backpedals on certain reforms, it runs into more serious problems. In particular, the slowdown in the democratization reforms Turkey is supposed to implement within the context of its European Union membership bid results in the deterioration of existing rights and freedoms. The […]

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

The fall of democracy and predicament of political Islam in Turkey

Malaysia Exposes Abductions By Erdoğan’s Long Arm In Asia

Shocking change and disappointed hearts…

New university in Pakistan with Turkish collaboration

More than 60 countries attend panel organized by GYV at UN

Germany takes Gülenists off watch list, conducts counterespionage against Ankara – report

Profiled lawyer files criminal complaint against MİT, MGK

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News