Turkish authorities unlawfully arrest pregnant woman on alleged Gülen links


Date posted: April 20, 2021

Emel Top Bayraktar, 29, a research assistant at Bingöl University in eastern Turkey, has been arrested for alleged links to the Gülen movement, despite being in the early stages of pregnancy, Bold Medya reported.

Bayraktar was detained on April 7 and arrested the next day despite the law on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, which stipulates that “execution of the prison sentence is delayed for women who are pregnant or have given birth within the last year and a half.” The law also applies to inmates kept in pre-trial detention.

Bayraktar was accused of using ByLock, an encrypted messaging app used on smartphones that was available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Turkish authorities claim that ByLock was a communication tool exclusively used by members of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, to ensure the privacy of their conversations.

In different opinions, the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) stated that arrest and conviction based on ByLock use in Turkey violated Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In an opinion WGAD noted that “no explanation has been provided [by the Turkish government] as to how the alleged use of this application … could be equated with a criminal act.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-Prime Minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.

Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

According to a report by Solidarity with Others, a nongovernmental organization that mainly consists of political exiles from Turkey, a total of 219 pregnant women and women with children under six years of age were arbitrarily detained or arrested over their suspected links to the Gülen movement.

According to a statement from Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on February 20, a total of 622,646 people have been the subject of investigation and 301,932 have been detained, while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the failed coup. The minister said there are currently 25,467 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed on alleged links to the Gülen movement.


Related News

Who is Fethullah Gülen?

The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, rightly called it “a coup against democracy” when Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı and STV network executive Hidayet Karaca, together with a number of screenwriters and television producers, were detained on Dec. 14 on the incredible charges of founding or belonging to “an armed terrorist organization aiming to seize the sovereignty of the state.”

Expert: I fear that Turkey is headed to a prolonged period of civil conflict if not civil war

He has become a joke, albeit a dangerous one. He has become Muammar Qadhafi. Turkey is dangerously polarized. We know from Turkish political history that such polarization often leads to violence. I fear that Turkey is headed to a prolonged period of civil conflict if not civil war.

Turkey’s Armenian Community: We are ready to be cultural bridge between people of Turkey, US

YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, deputy patriarch of the Armenian Patriarchate, based in İstanbul, told Sunday’s Zaman after returning from the Los Angeles Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival that Armenians are ready to be a bridge between the people of Turkey and the United States. “And having food at the festival makes it all […]

Kurdish initiative should not be suspended by provocative acts

TUĞBA MEZARARKALI/MEHMET TAYANÇ, BINGÖL The final declaration of a recent symposium on Turkey’s Kurdish issue, attended by Turkish and international academics, authors, politicians and leading thinkers, says that Kurdish initiatives aiming to resolve Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem by meeting some of the Kurdish people’s demands should not be suspended due to provocative acts. Organized by […]

Main opposition brings plans to sink Bank Asya to Parliament

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has brought onto Parliament’s agenda claims that some state companies and institutions withdrew massive amounts of money from participation bank Bank Asya in order to push it into insolvency by choking its liquidity conditions.

Turkish Gov’t Systematically Violated 12 Fundamental Rights During Emergency Rule

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, a deputy from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has announced that Turkish government has systematically violated 12 fundamental human rights during the ongoing state of emergency in the country.

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 tragedy in Soma will also be felt in politics

‘Turkey using political rather than legal pressure against US to get Gulen extradited’

Gülen has strongly rejected comparison to Iran’s Khomeini time and again

Fethullah Gulen: Violence can not be a remedy for violence

Fethullah Gülen’s message to the International symposium “Ijtihad and Qiyas: The richness of Islam”

3 detained Turkish educators and their families handed over to Turkey by Gabon

Turkish Imam: Enjoy the properties of Gulen Movement as ‘spoils’

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News