What really happened on the night of July 15, 2016 in Turkey? Why thousands of judges and prosecutors were the next day? Why hundreds of journalists were arrested and media outlets shut down after the coup attempt by Erdogan? Was the failed coup attempt Erdogan’s Reichstag Fire?
Yağmur Balcı, a 27-years-old mother, who disappeared together with his 11-months-old son in a Trabzon Prison, has been found in Sincan Prison in Ankara on Monday morning. Turkey’s Republican People’s Party deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu has announced that Yağmur Balcı and his son was transferred to Sincan Women Prison in Ankara without giving any information to her lawyer and her family.
Seventy-six babies have been born stateless in the last three months because Turkish diplomatic missions are denying consular services to people allegedly linked to the faith-based Gülen movement according to a report released by the Netherlands-based Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) on Monday.
In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Fethullah Gulen admitted meeting a key figure in Turkey’s July 2016 attempted coup. But the Turkish cleric said that a mere visit from one of his followers isn’t proof he orchestrated the failed coup.
Following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s promise “to cut off traitors’ heads,” the pro-government media called for an Ottoman-like solution for the execution of people linked to the Gülen movement. The social media message came a day after Erdoğan targeted people linked to the Gülen movement while speaking to a crowd of thousands on the anniversary of the failed coup attempt.
Fethullah Gulen repeated his declaration that he has never been involved in any coup-plotting. “I never thought that he could go so bad,” said Mr. Gulen, who said that the Turkish president was unleashing mass hysteria inside the country. “Some parts of Turkish society have lost their ability to think.”
It seems that there is no one left to say “enough” to Erdogan, most of the people who tried to stop him before are now in jail, and if the opposition can’t find a way to defend the civilian and constitutional rights then it’s completely useless. Some of them used to ignore the regime’s injustice just because they weren’t targeted by its actions, but they didn’t know that it will get to them one day as well.
Human rights advocate Renée Vaugeois wrote a letter asking Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen to expedite the Edmonton man’s residency application. She thinks that this is a targeted war on a specific group of people in Turkey and to her that speaks to genocide.
US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt a year ago, on Friday again denied any involvement in what he called a “despicable putsch,” and called on Ankara to end its “witch hunt” of his followers.
Saturday is a sad moment in Turkish history as it marks one year since the deplorable coup attempt that resulted in the death of hundreds and injuries of thousands. On this occasion I reiterate my condemnation of the despicable putsch and its perpetrators, and extend my sincere condolences to the families and loved ones affected by this horrible tragedy.