8-year-old cancer patient denied passport due to father’s alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group


Date posted: November 21, 2019

Ahmet Ataç, an eight-year-old kid with stage four bone cancer, has reportedly been denied a passport by Turkish authorities due to the his father’s ongoing imprisonment over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group.

The group is accused by the government of masterminding a coup attempt in 2016.

According to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a pro-Kurdish deputy in Turkey, Ahmet’s father has been held in prison for over 19 months on terror and coup charges. His mother was also detained several times over the past month on similar charges.

Ahmet has a stage 4 bone cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year relative survival rate for the most advanced stage of bone cancer, or osteosarcoma, is only 27 percent. Ahmet’s mother says that scientists at the Immune-Oncological Centre in Cologne (IOZK) may actually have a way to cure her son, if he is given a passport to go to Germany, of course.

Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen group, inspired by US-based Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen.

Source: Turkey Purge , November 20, 2019


Related News

Woman with soft tissue tumor held in Ankara prison for 8 months: report

Seynur Özdemir, a Turkish woman from Ankara, suffers from soft tissue sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that begins in the tissues that connect, support and surround other body structures. She however has been held in Ankara’s Sİncan prison since June 2019 on terror and coup charges.

Pregnant behind bars with a two-year-old kid

Elif Aydın, 31, is one of the educators arrested in Turkey over the past three years. She was two-months pregnant when she was sent to prison. The pregnant woman stayed by sharing the same bed with his son in prison for months.

Students visiting Turkey bid one another a teary farewell

Students who came to Turkey about four weeks ago to compete in the 11th International Turkish Olympiad — a competition in which Turkish speakers from around the globe recite poetry, write essays and sing songs — bid one another teary farewells during the Olympiad’s closing ceremony in İstanbul on Sunday night. The 11th International Turkish […]

US high school students visit Turkey, give glowing reviews

A group of American students who came to İstanbul in a cultural exchange program have told Today’s Zaman that their warm reception in Turkey has caused them to view the country extremely positively.

How come a 25 days old BABY could be a THREAT to the national security?

I was told that [Turkish Consulate] may issue a 3 months temporary passport which we can only use it to get back to Turkey. To ensure that they also labeled an extra note on the passport which says can only be used to return to Turkey.

Erdoğan’s African mission and dismantling Turkish schools

How do Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s repeated calls for the closure of Turkish schools located on the African continent, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, serve Turkish national interests? It appears that in his fight against a “parallel structure,” which he equates with institutions and people inspired by the faith-based Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, the current Turkish president is losing a sense of direction.

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

Turkish charities wrap up preparations for upcoming Eid al-Adha

Foreign Policy Magazine Interviewed Fethullah Gulen

Turkish Olympiads – A Blessing from God

Call for Papers – International Conference on “Indo-Turkish Dialogue: Historical, Social and Cultural Perspectives”

Response to aspersion on Hizmet

EP says Erdoğan’s ‘treason’ accusation ‘totally unacceptable’

‘Don’t link Thai schools with terrorists’

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News