
A letter sent by visually impaired Turkish journalist Cüneyt Arat, who was sent to prison last July due to alleged links to the Gülen movement, shows that he is having a hard time surviving in prison because penal facilities are not set up for a disabled person.

Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca has been sentenced to 31 years in prison by an Istanbul court on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and for allegedly slandering the al-Qaeda-affiliated group Tahşiyeciler.

Erdogan and Gulen shared the goal of creating a “devout generation”. Yet despite their similar outlook on life and objectives, the Gulen movement never merged completely with the AKP. However, Gulen was never willing to subordinate himself to Erdogan, which is why the two men fell out in 2013 and the informal coalition with the Gulen movement collapsed.

The abducted Turkish teacher Mesut Kacmaz and his family were reportedly deported by Pakistani government to Turkey on early Saturday. Lahore High Court had asked Interior Ministry to locate and release the family and not deport them until further notice.

I’m going to devote my column today to, Ibrahim Seruwagi, a young exchange student from Uganda who was robbed off his years of university education in Turkey when he got caught up in the persecution by the Erdoğan government. He was only a month away from graduating from medical school.

People detained after the last year’s failed putsch have been subject to torture in police custody while several others were abducted outside detention facilities, according to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch. The New York-based watchdog documented human rights abuses occurred between March and August 2017 in its 43-page report, “In Custody: Police Torture and Abductions in Turkey.”

“The police are expressing ignorance about the picking up of Mr. Mesut, so who did this?” asked Muhammed Zubair, a doctor whose children attended the PakTurk school in Peshawar and who represents the parent-teacher association. “This is a dangerous trend and will send a negative image of Pakistan abroad.”

Martin Luther, the Christian leader who is called “the Father of the Reformation,” described two kingdoms: the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of heaven. In the contrasts between Erdoğan and Gülen, we surely see examples of this distinction.

An author, lawyer and journalist who made a career and a name for herself from years of working as a court reporter who chased high-profile legal cases has become a victim of Turkish government’s massive crackdown on freedom of press in Turkey.

Despite promises by Nazarbaev not to return Turkish citizens to Turkey, the country’s bureaucracy is throwing up roadblocks to make it possible to stay in Kazakhstan. Political scientist Aidos Sarim accuses low-level bureaucrats of failing to follow Nazarbaev’s orders.