Erdoğan Jails Hundreds of Babies in Paranoid Purge


Date posted: February 28, 2018

Bridget Johnson 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is infamous for encouraging Turks to reproduce like wildfire, urging the diaspora in Europe to “have five children, not three” and telling women in the secular state that Islam ties them to the “duty” of motherhood.

He’s not so fond of babies with alleged coup conspiratorial ties.

Yes, Erdoğan’s paranoid purge of perceived political enemies has landed hundreds of babies and toddlers behind bars, sometimes arresting mothers on the very day they have given birth.


When will the world pay heed to the humanitarian crisis on Erdoğan’s home turf that engulfs more innocent people by the day, even crying babies?


Turkey’s Ministry of Justice told an inquiring opposition lawmaker last May that at least 560 children 6 years of age and under were being held in overcrowded prisons as authorities continue to round up perceived foes after the July 2016 coup attempt. Sometimes the mother has been arrested while pregnant; sometimes both parents were seized and there’s no one left in the family to care for the children. More than 100 incarcerated kids were infants under a year old.

Activists have been using the hashtags #668babies, or #668bebek, to reflect the mounting total of known tots behind bars.

In August 2016, Turkey cleared out 10 of thousands of inmates, some convicted of violent crimes, to make room for more political prisoners. An IRIN investigation released last September uncovered reports of torture, withholding water, lack of access to medical care and sexual abuse among the mistreatment; one woman who suffered internal bleeding after a beating was scheduled by prison officials to see a doctor two months later. To add insult to injury, everything used by a prisoner from water to medical care to maxi pads must be paid by the detainee.

One young mother sentenced for taking part in a protest was sent to prison with her six-month-old baby, shoved into a cell built for eight that housed two dozen women. Her sister told investigators that the mother struggled to get baby food and supplies behind bars, and was once dragged by her hair down a stairway for refusing to salute guards.


Erdoğan’s paranoid purge of perceived political enemies has landed hundreds of babies and toddlers behind bars, sometimes arresting mothers on the very day they have given birth.


It’s still six degrees of Fethullah Gülen in Turkey, where the regime will cook up any story to link detainees to the Pennsylvania cleric blamed for the coup. Just ask American hostages Pastor Andrew Brunson, who just passed the 500-day mark of captivity, and NASA Mars mission scientist Serkan Gölge, who was sentenced this month to 7.5 years on bogus charges.

As of the beginning of this month, more than 132,000 people have been detained and more than 64,000 have been arrested in Erdoğan’s purge. The human rights abuses are staggering; the world’s silence, deafening. Ali Osman Karahan, an eightysomething with one kidney who is suffering from late-stage prostate cancer, was detained for 15 months; document showed Karahan was subjected to 11 days in solitary confinement for simply encouraging other prisoners to have hope that they will someday be free.

And as the very old are treated horrendously, so are the very young.

Aysun Aydemir, an English teacher who had a Caesarean section on May 12, was taken into custody with her newborn three days later. Hatice Avan gave birth on June 22 and police swooped in to lock her in the hospital room with her baby before arresting them the next day. Teacher Fatma Özturk was reportedly handcuffed to her bed before being arrested hours after giving birth on July 9. Ayşe Kaya was hauled in for interrogation the same day she gave birth on July 25. When doctors have protested that new moms shouldn’t be discharged, police have hovered over their hospital rooms before making an arrest.

As opposition MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who has gathered and tweeted these stories and more, said of the arresting authorities, “Are these humans?”

When will the world pay heed to the humanitarian crisis on Erdoğan’s home turf that engulfs more innocent people by the day, even crying babies?


Bridget Johnson is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center and D.C. bureau chief for PJ Media.

 

Source: The Christian Post , February 28, 2018


Related News

Dismissed after coup attempt, teacher detained during visit to imprisoned relative

Malatya teacher C.K., earlier dismissed from his/her post as part of the government’s post-coup purge, was taken into custody during a visit to his/her jailed relative on Saturday.

Major Says No One In Erdoğan Assassination Attempt Trial Has Links To Gülen

One of 37 officers who are standing trial on charges of taking part in an assassination attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a failed coup on July 15 has said none of the officers in the trial has any links to the faith-based Gülen movement.

Tape politics

Someone placed a bugging device to wiretap the prime minister in a room that was being placed under constant surveillance. What is easier than catching the perpetrators behind this? Who entered and left the room should have been recorded. This incident took place in 2011 but as of now, this still remains unresolved and the Hizmet movement is being blamed for it.

Number of Kimse Yok Mu volunteers triple

The aid organization’s volunteers number have increased three-fold despite a politically-motivated hate campaign launched by government in Turkey

Separate state and religion

Turkey needs to face the fact that experience gained over the course of almost a century has shown that the marriage of state and religion is detrimental to both. If Turkey is to ever consolidate a liberal and pluralist kind of democracy, state and religion need to be separated, and freedom for believers and nonbelievers alike has to be secured.

Once They were Brothers – Bir Zamanlar Kardeştiler

Kanter himself has faced legitimate threats from Erdoğan’s government. In 2017, Kanter escaped Turkish agents in Indonesia while working at a basketball camp for his foundation. He was detained in Romania for several hours and Turkish authorities had already cancelled his passport, making him a stateless man. Eventually, he was able to return to the United States, but not without a Turkish arrest warrant and a four-year prison sentence.

Latest News

Erdogan’s Failed Crusade: The World Rejects His War on Hizmet

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?

In Case You Missed It

Purges at Turkish Airlines continue after PM’s ‘witch hunt’ remarks

Turkey further from EU accession than in 2007, Swoboda says

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

Islamist vs. Islamic

Finance Minister is the 1001st volunteer at meat distribution campaign

Separate state and religion

Alevi demands remain unfulfilled as their disappointment grows

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News