Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been waging a relentless war against followers of the faith-based Gülen movement in Turkey for the past several years, has said Gülen movement sympathizers in the country will not enjoy the right to life.
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.
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.
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.
Ali Özer, a 48-year-old doctor who was jailed due to his alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, has died of a heart attack in Çorum Prison. This is 57th such suspicious death or suicide since last summer’s so-called coup attempt against Erdogan regime.
This latest move against the Gulen sympathizers is a violation of a basic right of the suspects, who are still legally innocent until proven guilty, to defend themselves at the courts. It is clear that Erdogan regime leaves the suspects no room to defend themselves at the courts.
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.
Against the background of massive crackdown on critics and opponents in Turkey and widespread torture practices in detentions and prisons, 54 people were reported to have lost their lives, most under suspicious circumstances and under lock-up in the last eight months.
The 2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices — the Human Rights Reports — released by the US State Department on Friday said that Turkish courts had imprisoned tens of thousands of people with little clarity on charges and evidence over their alleged links with a failed coup in July 2016 that was blamed on the Gülen movement.
Many public servants, including police officers and teachers, found themselves working at unskilled jobs in the labor market after being dismissed following decrees issued by the Turkish government in the aftermath of a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
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.