Ayşe Kaya, 30-year-old woman who gave birth to a baby in İstanbul early on Tuesday, was reportedly detained by police with her newborn baby later the same day. Turkish government has systematically been detaining women on coup charges either when they are pregnant or shortly after giving birth. This incident is the second in a week and 16th in the past 9 months.
At least 275 people were detained over their alleged links to the Gulen movement, according to Turkish media. Among the accusations raised against the detainees were to have raised money for Turkey’s post-coup victims, whether be relatives of those earlier arrested or those dismissed from their jobs.
Recently a messenger came to Colorado with dark warnings from a troubled land: Abdulhamit Bilici, the former editor-in-chief of Zaman, Turkey’s go-to newspaper before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s brutal crackdown. You don’t often meet people like Abdulhamit Bilici in the United States. You almost can’t believe that someone with his backstory sits before you.
Dozens of people are being rounded up all over Turkey for wearing white T-shirts with the word “hero” printed in English across the front. The arrests are being carried out based on the suspicion that the wearers are sympathisers and supporters of Fethullah Gulen.
Despite Gülen’s repeated denials of any involvement and his open call for an investigation by an international commission, no concrete effort has been made to find out the true perpetrators of the heinous attempt. Instead, a state of emergency, which still continues today, was declared and is used to silence the opposition and all other critical voices.
Turkey has named 68 companies as supporters of the Gülen movement, in a list sent to Germany’s federal police, according to Die Zeit weekly. The list included a Turkish fast food restaurant and a late-night food store, Die Zeit said.
After the attempted coup, college professors have been hit especially hard, thanks to Gülen’s popularity inside Turkish higher education. Turks were encouraged to report Gülen’s followers to the government. Universities have been ordered to establish 7-8 member committees looking into anti-government activities of the faculty and administration.
The Government of Liberian says the Turkish Light International School System remains a private institution of learning in Liberia and enjoys all the privileges provided all educational institutions operating in the country until it concludes an investigation into allegations that operators of the school here were linked to a failed coup in Turkey.
A year after a failed coup on July 15, 2016, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said he did not know who had attempted to carry out the coup when they blamed the Gülen movement, in an interview published in Hürriyet.
Within days of the coup attempt, James Clapper, the then-Director of US National Intelligence, said that they had not seen any intelligence indicating Gülen’s involvement. Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency, said during an interview in March 2017 that he did not believe Gülen was behind the coup.