Animation – Story of Turkish teacher Gokhan Acikkollu, tortured to death under police custody
Date posted: May 29, 2018
Gökhan Açıkkollu, a history teacher suffering from diabetes, died of torture in police custody as part of a post-coup investigation into Turkey’s Gülen group.
Gokhan Acikkolu was a teacher of history. As many people, he was detained on charge of being Gulen Fallower on July 23,2016. He died under police custody. He died without even knowing what he was accused of.
Fell sick over diabetes and harsh treatment the teacher was taken to a hospital. Doctors declared him well and sent him back to custody. Several days later, badly wounded and seriously ill teacher died under custody.
Turkey needs to face the fact that experience gained over the course of almost a century has shown that the marriage of state and religion is detrimental to both. If Turkey is to ever consolidate a liberal and pluralist kind of democracy, state and religion need to be separated, and freedom for believers and nonbelievers alike has to be secured.
GYV expresses concern over claims of government profiling of its citizens
The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, released a statement on its website on Thursday in which it said it is worried about the profiling of citizens, civic groups and public employees.
Witch-hunts in Europe
Hate-filled language, such as “dirty water mixed with the milk,” “we will enter their dens” and “hashashin,” all uttered by the prime minister as part of his hate speech against the Gülen movement, was also a method employed during the witch-hunts in medieval Europe.
Turkey’s ‘Nazi-style’ purge of academia condemned
The mass sacking of more than 1,200 academics in Turkey has been compared to tactics used in Nazi Germany. Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, made his comments shortly after Turkish authorities released a list of 1,273 academics fired from public universities on 29 October.
Message of tolerance, peace expressed at GYV’s fast-breaking dinner
A message of tolerance, dialogue and coexistence for people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds was dominant at a fast-breaking dinner organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) on Thursday. “We have capital no other than love, no intention other than serving humanity,” Mustafa Yeşil, head of the GYV, said at the fast-breaking dinner, […]
Reflections from the US
In the past three weeks, the AK Party has proposed new laws to increase government controls over judges and prosecutors, and many investigations have slowed down, raising suspicions that the government might be trying to hide something.
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
[VIDEO] Turkish philosophy teacher says wife had to give birth at home due to Erdogan’s witch-hunt
Strange alignment of PKK and government against Hizmet
Walking in the Shoes of Others: Stepping in and out of Turkey
Gülen calls for broadening freedoms, improvement in Kurdish rights