The 12-year-old T.K. has claimed asylum with the United Nations (UN) office in Saudi Arabia alone after his/her father was detained by Saudi officials as part of what many say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ever-growing witch-hunt against the Gulen movement that has spread to overseas in the recent past.
Thousands of women in Turkey, many with small children, have been jailed in an unprecedented crackdown and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons as part of the government’s systematic campaign of intimidation and persecution of critics and opponents, a new report has revealed.
Hacer Çakmak is only one of the hundreds of thousands of people who found themselves facing tremendous difficulties after the government started a desperate crackdown on the Gülen movement in the aftermath of a July 15 coup attempt.
As Turkey celebrated the 97th anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Parliament and Children’s Day on April 23, at least 520 children with imprisoned mothers have been deprived of enjoying the day as they are obliged to grow up in jail.
The Turkish government has cut off funds granted to Rafia Nur, a 12-year-old child whose father has been arrested over alleged links to the Gülen movement. The lower half of Rafia’s body is paralyzed, impairing her ability to walk or stand.
M.O., a dismissed teacher and father of two kids with 92 and 98 percent disability ratings, has reportedly been kept in an Antalya prison for almost 4 months over alleged links to the Gülen movement. “We did not do anything wrong. My kids are 9 and 4 years old. We have no income, no job and no insurance. Nothing,” his wife said.
A 15-month-old baby with Down syndrome, Ayşe Sena Bunlu, has been suffering from serious health problems ever since her parents, both of whom are police officers, were purged from their posts and jailed in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, according to a story in the Tr724 news portal on Friday.
Twin daughters of the Istanbul-based Şengün family were handed over to their 65-year-old grandmother as both E. Şengün and his wife F. were arrested after being kept under detention for 30 days. They are about to turn one with no father or mother in company.
Y., the father of a 6-month-old disabled baby, was reportedly arrested almost three months ago over alleged links to the Gülen movement. The newly-born disabled baby has been left with the mother, who told the news portal that the baby underwent three expensive and crucial surgery in the past three months.
Nearly seven months after former public worker B.K. was arrested, his wife and two children were also detained as part of a government witch hunt against the Gülen movement. She is also diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Hatice Kökoğlu, the mother of a disabled son and a daughter, has reportedly been detained in Kütahya province over alleged links to the Gülen movement. However, the two disabled children were left alone after their mother was recently taken into custody as part of an investigation launched by the Kütahya Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The unrelenting witch-hunt persecution against critics and opponents in Turkey by county’s Islamist rulers knows no boundaries when it comes to traumatizing kids and babies whose parents were dragged to jail on false charges.