Keyword: Turkey
WikiLeaks reveals emails from the son-in-law of President Erdogan, ‘proving his connection to ISIS operation smuggling oil into Turkey’
WikiLeaks has released a tranche of more than 57,000 personal emails from the account of Turkey’s Minister of Oil Berat Albayrak, President Erdogan’s son-in-law. WikiLeaks alleges that the emails reveal ‘Albayrak’s involvement in organisations such as Powertrans, the company implicated in Isis oil imports’. The company has been implicated in oil imports from ISIS-controlled oil fields.
Bipartisan think-tank: The U.S. should not interfere politically in Gülen extradition case
If the executive branch were to interfere too forcefully in the Gülen extradition case now, it would only confirm Turkish leaders’ belief that the U.S. system operates on the same corrupt terms as Turkey’s. This would fundamentally affirm Erdoğan’s view that democracy as a value and a practice is a purely cynical discourse used by Western powers to harm Turkey.
Hundreds of thousands homeless as Turkey’s southeast lay in ruins
When the residents of Sirnak returned to the city last month after Turkish authorities lifted eight-month curfew during intense urban fighting between the Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents, they were shocked with what they saw: there was no home where they left.
Gift From God: How Erdogan Turned July 15 Into Windfall
According to an official narrative of the government, MIT learned the coup plans earlier in the day and its chief several times discussed it with army chief Akar. One fundamental contradiction was the fact that despite this early warning and intelligence, commanders of navy, ground forces and air forces attended a wedding ceremony that night.
Amnesty: 500,000 Kurds displaced in Turkey’s Southeast due to curfews, crackdown
Tens of thousands of residents of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sur are among an estimated half million people forced from their homes as a result of a brutal crackdown by Turkish authorities over the past year which may amount to collective punishment, said Amnesty International in a new report.
Filipina, infant freed from Turkish jail, but…
The Filipina mother who forcibly was separated from her infant and detained in Turkey for weeks has been released. But their reunion is being cut short by her deportation, in the crackdown following a failed coup in which she had no part. Information is being withheld from Karen’s lawyer and the Philippine Embassy staff assisting her. Forcible separation of an infant from her mother is a humanitarian concern.
Erdogan – Turkey’s desperate president
There is a curious reluctance on the part of the Turkish government to carry out an in-depth investigation of the coup, but the blame has been put unequivocally on an erstwhile ally, Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive Turkish imam resident in Pennsylvania, and the cadres of his movement, which enabled Erdogan and the AKP to come to and hold power.
Torture appeared widespread after Turkey coup: UN expert
Measures taken in Turkey after the July 15 coup attempt created an “environment conducive to torture”, and ill treatment appears to have been widespread immediately after the failed putsch, UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer said told reporters in Ankara. “Some recently passed legislation and statutory decrees created an environment conducive to torture,” he said.
Turkey seizes billions of dollars worth 691 companies over alleged ties to Gülen movement
The state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has announced that a total of 691 companies, some of whose assets are worth billions of dollars, have been seized by the government due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement. The government has been confiscating the private property of non-loyalist businesspeople without due process on unsubstantiated charges of terrorist links.
[Erdogan’s] Turken Foundation: A Wolf in the Neighborhood [in the US]
Members of the Saudi royal family are known financiers of madrassas, informal education centers around the world that propagate Wahhabiism, an extremist interpretation of Islam. Will the [pro-Erdogan] New York dormitory function as a madrassa?
UN representative found evidence of torture in Turkish prisons
The majority of the abuse occurred during the times of arrest and interrogation, his report noted, adding that most of those who have been subjected to torture have not filed complaints “for fear of retaliation against them and their families and because of their distrust in the independence of the prosecution and the judiciary.
Turkey’s Economy Suffering Enormous Post-Coup Purges
Since the attempted military coup on July 15, the government, empowered by a state of emergency, has fired or suspended about 125,000 people, of whom nearly 40,000 have been arrested, and tens of thousands of others taken into custody. As a result, roughly 800,000 people have been completely cut off from any economic safety net.
Turkey torture claims in wake of failed coup
Kamil continues. “‘If you don’t speak, we’ll bring your wife here and rape her in front of your eyes’, they said. Then they took me to a dark room and tried to forcefully insert a baton into my anus. When they couldn’t do it, they left. Maybe I will forget the other torture – but for the sexual part, it is carved into the dirtiest corner of my heart.”
