Amnesty laments treatment of Turkey purge victims

Amnesty said many were fired with no explanations given, therefore making it hard to challenge the dismissals.
Amnesty said many were fired with no explanations given, therefore making it hard to challenge the dismissals.


Date posted: November 1, 2018

Almost 130,000 public sector workers fired by decree during post-coup state of emergency due to alleged links to plotters.

ANKARA – Amnesty International on Thursday criticised what it called the “shameful” treatment of Turkish civil servants who were dismissed after the 2016 failed overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Almost 130,000 public sector workers were fired by decree during a post-coup state of emergency because of their alleged links to the plotters, terrorist organisations or other groups posing a threat to national security.

Those who believe they were wrongfully sacked can apply to a special commission to have their case reviewed and either be reinstated or compensated.

However, Amnesty said many were fired with no explanations given, therefore making it hard to challenge the dismissals.

A majority are still “awaiting justice” and face “an uncertain future”, Amnesty said, adding that so far only 6,000 had returned to their jobs.

The dismissals included more than 33,500 teachers and 31,500 police officers.

The commission has “failed to uphold international standards and is acting as a de facto rubber stamp for the initial flawed decisions,” Andrew Gardner, Amnesty’s Turkey strategy and research manager, said.

The “whole process is a shameful affront to justice”, he added in a statement.

The rights group said the lack of an effective appeals process was “one of the worst human rights violations of the state of emergency period”.

Amnesty also criticised the “innocuous” reasons given for dismissals. It said that the reasons given by the commission for upholding sackings often “lack merit and foregrounding in law”.

The commission has only issued rulings in a third of cases so far, of which less than seven percent were “positive decisions”.

Turkey accuses the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen and his movement of ordering the attempted putsch, claims which he strongly denies.

His movement is described by Ankara as the “Fethullah Terrorist Organisation” (FETO).

Turkish authorities say the purges are necessary to cleanse the “virus” of the Gulen movement’s infiltration of state institutions.

Although the state of emergency ended in July, Amnesty says a recently approved law still allows “summary dismissals” of public sector workers.

Source: Middle East Online , October 25, 2018


Related News

‘Parallel state’ and ‘theft of national will’

There is not a single piece of concrete evidence indicating that prosecutors and police officers had acted in contravention of laws and regulations in the investigation into the corruption claims that implicated some former Cabinet members and their sons. However, these public officials who performed their lawful duties in full compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability and equality — which are fundamental characteristics of the regimes that uphold the rule of law — were recklessly accused by the prime minister and his cronies of being the “parallel state.

Turkey’s Global Anti-Gülen Crusade Puts Tbilisi in Diplomatic Bind

Mustafa Emre Çabuk is out of prison but not out of trouble. The Turkish national, who for the past 15 years ran a Gülen school in the Georgian capital, Tblisi, is the latest international educator caught up in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s anti-Gülenist campaign.

Global Spying Network: Erdogan’s Worldwide Monitoring of Gülen Supporters

In his desire to convince the world that Gülen is a criminal, Erdogan has been demanding that the U.S. extradite Gülen for months. That also likely explains why the Turkish government is currently collecting information from all over the world. It needs incriminating evidence in order to substantiate the allegations against Gülen.

US calls decision by Turkey to seize Zaman newspaper ’troubling’

“We see this as the latest in a series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish government targeting media outlets and others critical of it,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.

One year after attempted coup, purges have left hundreds of Turkish academics imprisoned

After the attempted coup, college professors have been hit especially hard, thanks to Gülen’s popularity inside Turkish higher education. Turks were encouraged to report Gülen’s followers to the government. Universities have been ordered to establish 7-8 member committees looking into anti-government activities of the faculty and administration.

Child of purged victim in Turkey says: I was 14 months old when my dad jailed

The child of a man who was arrested as part of a Turkish government crackdown on dissent following a failed coup last July said in a message on a piece of paper that “I was 14 months old when my father left.”

Latest News

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?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Turkey’s Crackdown Extends to Taipei

Fethullah Gulen Criticizes the Da Vinci Code

Mali education minister lauds teachers in nation’s Turkish schools

Violent Extremism

Hizmet, politics and political parties

Gulen Movement And Transparency

Huntsville’s Peace Valley Foundation sets annual Dialogue Dinner and awards

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News