Man abducted by Turkish intel exposes torture during 9-month enforced disappearance


Date posted: February 17, 2020

Gökhan Türkmen, who was allegedly abducted by Turkish intelligence officers and kept in a non-official detention center for 271 days, has said he was tortured, subjected to severe threats and sexually harassed and abused during his enforced disappearance, according to the Yeni 1 Mecra news website.

In February 2019 seven suspects in investigations related to the faith-based Gülen movement went missing.

Gokhan Turkmen

Turkey accuses the movement of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt, although it strongly denies any involvement. Since the failed coup, Ankara has carried out a post-coup crackdown targeting followers of the movement.

Six of them — Salim Zeybek, Erkan Irmak, Yasin Ugan, Özgür Kaya, Mustafa Yılmaz, and Türkmen — reappeared in police custody in Ankara after a nearly nine-month absence.

Yusuf Bilge Tunç, a former public servant who was dismissed from his job by a government decree, is still missing.

Türkmen, currently held in pretrial detention at Ankara’s Sincan Prison, told trial judges he was abducted in his hometown of Antalya by people wearing police vests on Feb. 3, 2019.

He was taken to a location four or five hours away by van where months-long torture and ill-treatment started, he added.

Türkmen said while he was in police custody in November he was prevented from retaining his own legal counsel. He announced during a hearing that he had dismissed lawyer Ayşegül Güney assigned by a bar association.

The families of the once-missing men had conducted a social media campaign to find their loved ones during their nine-month absence, but the other five people, excluding Türkmen, who later reappeared in police custody, told their families to halt the campaign.

They were obviously afraid and apparently treated very badly considering their appearance, the families and lawyers from the Ankara Bar Association later told reporters.

The families had consistently complained about the lack of assistance from officials to find their loved ones, as wives unearthed details on their indicating that their husbands had been abducted.

Salim Zeybek’s wife, Fatma Betül Zeybek, was with him when three men in a vehicle forced them to stop their car and abducted her husband.

According to Turkish security officials the missing men had stayed in a safe house out in the in country for months and never felt the urge to make contact with their families.

Lawyer Mehmet Murat Atak, a human rights lawyer from the Ankara Bar Association, told Yeni 1 Mecra that the men must be examined by independent doctors to determine the extent of the torture.

They must not be tried in their psychologically damaged state, Atak added.

Nearly 30 people have reportedly been abducted by Turkish intelligence officers since 2016. Two of them were able to flee the country and told foreign media about the torture that they had endured during their enforced disappearance.

Source: Turkish Minute , February 7, 2020


Related News

Reporters Without Borders urges Turkey to rescind draconian state of emergency decrees

Two months after responding to a coup attempt by declaring a state of emergency, the Turkish government continues to target journalists, pluralism and freedom of information. RSF is today publishing a reportthat details the many abuses and urges the government to return to democratic principles.

Illegal raid against Bank Asya spells disaster for Turkey, says TUSKON head

“The raid on Bank Asya is a violation of the right of proprietorship and a murders the entrepreneurial spirit,” noted the president of the Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON), Rızanur Meral, in an interview with Bugün TV.

AK Party VP Sahin: We can only be grateful to Hizmet people

Vice President of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Mehmet Ali Şahin remarked on the relations between AK Party and the Hizmet Movement (Gulen movement) in an interview*. Şahin said, “Is it possible for us to have any issue with the people performing such activities? We can be only grateful to them. We […]

Turkish police to plant Gülen’s books in ISIL cells, journalist claims

In the latest of an ever-growing demonization of Fethullah Gülen at the hands of Turkish government, police are set to deliberately put his books in ISIL cells in a bid to reveal an alleged connection between the cleric and the terrorist organization, according to a Turkish journalist.

Erdoğan’s ‘non-precious’ loneliness

The US and Europe now use Erdoğan’s level of aggression against whomever he targets as an indicator to measure the degree of democratic culture of the Turks. For this reason, as Erdoğan and his government intensify their aggression, the Hizmet movement becomes more respectable and prestigious in the world.

Global Dignity Day marked in Turkey

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) organized a number of activities in Turkey to mark the Annual Global Dignity Day, which is celebrated with Global Dignity-led events around the world with the participation of 350.000 young people across 50 countries.

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

The era of dialogue will never be over

Cultural diaspora

Peace Islands Massachusetts bestows Friendship Awards

Liberia: ‘Go Beyond Secondary Education’- VP Urges Liberia’s Turkish Light International School

Clash of two Islams in Turkey

The Gülen Movement and human rights values in the Muslim world

On Gülen vs Erdogan – “And not equal are the good deed and the bad”

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News