8-year-old cancer patient departs to Germany for treatment without parents due to ongoing travel ban


Date posted: January 23, 2020

Ahmet Burhan Ataç, an eight-year-old kid departed to Germany on Sunday for cancer treatment without his parents as the father is in prison and the mother is subject to a travel ban over alleged Gulen links.

According to the reports, Ataç’s grandmother will accompany him during his treatment.

The child’s mother, Zekiye, who has long been calling for the removal of the travel ban so that she can accompany her son during his treatment, posted a video after she saw Ahmet off at the airport. In tears, the mother said: “Ahmet did not want to go to Germany without me. I told him I would come in two weeks. My son was dying before my eyes. … I am appealing to the authorities: Please don’t keep me separated from my son.”

Ataç came to public attention in Turkey due to a campaign to secure the release of her husband, Harun, who was convicted of terrorist organization membership and sentenced to more than nine years in prison in November 2018.

The couple faced prosecution for having worked at a dormitory that had links to the Gülen movement, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016. The movement strongly denies any involvement.

Zekiye Ataç was also jailed for two-and-a-half months on charges of being a Gülen movement follower. She was briefly detained in October.

Ahmet Burhan has been suffering from osteoid cancer for more than a year, which has now spread to his lungs. The woman has been calling for the release of her husband at least during the appeals process so that her son can be with his father during the treatment.

On Oct. 2 Zekiye Ataç had spoken to Euronews Turkish service about her social media campaign to have her husband released. In the interview she had said the child’s disease was discovered after his father’s arrest in March 2018 and that he needs his father to be with him to aid in his recovery.

Source: Turkey Purge , January 22, 2020


Related News

Turkish court rejects appeal to arrest Dumanlı

A court has rejected an appeal made by a prosecutor requesting the arrest of Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı, stating that there was no new evidence that was sufficient to put Dumanlı behind bars.

Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneş released pending trial

The İstanbul 8th Penal Court of Peace ruled on Wednesday to release Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneş pending trial after deliberating on a petition by the lawyers of Keneş, who was arrested on Saturday and detained at Silivri Prison.

Erdoğan: both asset and liability for AKP

“Very few people in Turkey could deny that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government under the leadership of Tayyip Erdoğan has made a tremendous and positive transformation in the country. Now, he is on it again with his insistence on trying to close down tutorial centers that belong to the private sector. Everybody knows that with this he is trying to punish the Hizmet movement, which has resisted pledging absolute loyalty to him.

An Indian professor’s reflections on Erdogan’s visit to India, crackdown on Gulen movement

There has been no evidence of any terrorist activity by the followers of Gulen in any part of the world including Turkey. In India, they have been running their institutions: schools, coaching Institutes, and dormitories for more than 15 years, but none has been accused of any kind of terrorism and crime.

Turkish Olympiad students visit Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek

İPEK ÜZÜM, İSTANBUL Students coming from all round the world to participate in the 11th International Turkish Olympiad, a festival that celebrates the Turkish language and which this year brought together 2,000 students from 140 countries around the world, visited Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek and organizations in Ankara on Monday. A group of students went […]

Who was behind the Turkish Coup: Sufi Islamic Scholar Fathullah Gülen or the Regime itself?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has bluntly blamed it on the Hizmet movement, Gülen’s initiative for intercultural and interfaith dialogue and education in the country expanding across the world today. But for many immensely impressed by Gülen’s global humanitarian, social and Islam-based peace activism, it remains an obscure question as to how the former ally of his country is now blamed for the coup.

Latest News

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?

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

In Case You Missed It

What’s not to love in this coup?

ABA urges Obama to protest Turkey’s suppression of free speech

Galaxy International School in Uganda educates thinkers, innovators

Nizamiye Will Perform 15,000 Cardiac Procedures In Nigeria

Islamic scholar Gülen calls for calm among supporters

AK Party gov’t violates rule of law with mass profiling of civil servants

‘We are a Kurdistan company,’ says Kurdish Gulen school official

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News