ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 84 people over alleged links to the Gülen movement. In October 2020, a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) opinion said that widespread or systematic imprisonment of individuals with alleged links to the group may amount to crimes against humanity. Solidarity with OTHERS has compiled a detailed database to monitor the Gülen-linked mass detentions since a failed coup in July 2016.
October 31: Ehettin Kaynar, a jailed cancer patient, lost his life in a hospital in Iğdır two months after his release from a Karabük prison.
November 1: Ünal Üneş, a retired teacher jailed for alleged links to the Gülen movement, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Already suffering from heart problems and diabetes, Üneş is kept alone in prison, according to his wife’s remarks to the media.
November 3: Gülden Aşık, a woman jailed for alleged links to the Gülen movement, is unfit to remain in prison according to a report issued by a hospital. Aşık is suffering from thyroid cancer and she urgently needs to undergo surgery. News reports pointed out that she has not been released despite the hospital report which was released in August 2022.
ARBITRARY DEPRIVATION OF LIFE
November 4: The Constitutional Court found no rights violations in a 2015-2016 curfew in Şırnak where 137 people were killed in counterterrorism operations.
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES
No news has emerged of Yusuf Bilge Tunç, a former public sector worker who was sacked from his job by a decree-law during the 2016-2018 state of emergency and who was reported missing as of August 6, 2019 in what appears to be one of the latest cases in a string of suspected enforced disappearance of government critics since 2016.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION
October 31: The police in İzmir intervened in a demonstration staged against the arrest of leading rights defender Şebnem Korur Fincancı, briefly detaining 23 activists.
October 31: A district governor’s office in Bursa banned a concert by musician İlkay Akkaya.
October 31: The Hakkari Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 15 days.
November 1: The police in İzmir intervened in an exhibition organized by university students, detaining 20 students.
November 1: The police in İstanbul intervened in a students’ protest, detaining four activists.
November 1: The police in İstanbul intervened in a labor union demonstration, briefly detaining two people.
November 2: The Şırnak Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 5 days.
November 4: The police in İstanbul intervened in a protest vigil about sick prisoners, detaining three activists.
November 6: The police in İstanbul intervened in a demonstration about the military’s alleged use of chemical weapons in northern Iraq, briefly detaining 121 people.
November 6: The gendarmes in Şırnak intervened in a protest about the military’s alleged use of chemical weapons in northern Iraq, detaining 32 people.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA
October 31: Turkish authorities reportedly arrested 34 Egyptian dissident journalists.
October 31: A Kayseri prison imposed a 11-day solitary confinement on inmate Hasan Kılıç for allegedly disseminating terrorist propaganda in a letter he wrote.
October 31: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to two news reports and an opinion piece about nepotism allegations implicating a presidential aide.
October 31: A Gaziantep court ruled to block access to three news reports about allegations that a relative of Gaziantep mayor had built illegal housing.
October 31: An Aydın court ruled to block access to three news reports on allegations that a former mayor had battered a female municipal employee.
October 31: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to three news reports on corruption allegations implicating an executive of Turkish Airlines, the national carrier.
November 1: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to six news reports on allegations that a vehicle in which drugs were found had ties to a pro-government corporation.
November 1: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to three news reports on bribery allegations implicating a former chairperson of a pro-government foundation and the former executive of the national railway company.
November 2: An İstanbul court sentenced journalists Semiha Şahin and Pınar Gayıp to three years, one month, 15 days in prison on terrorism-related charges.
November 2: The pro-government Sabah newspaper published secretly taken photos of exiled journalist Levent Kenez, revealing his home address in Sweden. The same newspaper in recent weeks published secretly taken photos of two other Sweden-based dissidents as well as a journalist who lives in Germany.
November 2: A Hatay court sentenced a HDP supporter to three years in prison on terrorism charges for live-streaming Kurdish songs on social media.
November 3: The police in İzmir detained lawyer Aryen Turan due to a speech she gave during a bar association meeting in which she raised allegations that the military used chemical weapons in northern Iraq. Turan was released under judicial control and with a travel ban the next day.
November 3: An Ankara court ruled to block access to a news report on allegations that the military used chemical weapons in northern Iraq.
November 3: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to three news reports on various allegations concerning the president’s son.
November 4: An Ankara court handed down suspended prison sentences to 11 people on charges of insulting the president, due to slogans they chanted during a labor union meeting. Each defendant was sentenced to 11 months, 20 days in prison.
JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE & RULE OF LAW
November 4: The Constitutional Court annulled a law that revoked the professional licenses of teachers who were dismissed from public sector by a post-coup decree-law after 2016. The legislation had drawn criticism as it prohibited teachers from pursuing their profession in the private sector.
KURDISH MINORITY
October 31: The guards in a women’s prison in Ankara strip-searched Kurdish journalists Diren Yurtsever, Berivan Altan, Ceylan Şahinli, Habibe Eren and Öznur Değer.
November 2: A Hatay court sentenced a HDP supporter to three years in prison on terrorism charges for live-streaming Kurdish songs on social media.
November 4: The Constitutional Court found no rights violations in a 2015-2016 curfew in Şırnak where 137 people were killed in counterterrorism operations.
OTHER MINORITIES
November 4: An Alevi place of worship in Adana was vandalized by unidentified assailants who spray painted discriminatory and racial slurs on the walls and caused physical damage in the garden.
PRISON CONDITIONS
October 31: A Bolu prison launched disciplinary investigations into 136 inmates for protesting rights violations in the prison facility.
October 31: A Kayseri prison imposed a 11-day solitary confinement on inmate Hasan Kılıç for allegedly disseminating terrorist propaganda in a letter he wrote.
November 2: Reports indicated that some wards in a women’s prison in Ankara were flooded due to a sewage malfunction and that the prison administration took no action to clean up the flooding.
November 3: The Constitutional Court ruled that a Bingöl prison violated the right to privacy of inmate Musa Küçükabacı by recording his meeting with his lawyer.
November 3: Ceylan Şahinli, a jailed Kurdish journalist, was denied healthcare for refusing to undergo treatment in handcuffs.
November 5: Reports revealed that an Ağrı prison has been denying hospital referrals to inmates for nearly a year.
November 5: A prison administration in İzmir confiscated the photos of an inmate due to his clothing in them.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
October 31: Turkish authorities reportedly arrested 34 Egyptian dissident journalists, raising fears of deportation.
November 3: A migrant boat capsized in the Aegean sea, resulting in the death of 20 migrants and the disappearance of more than 30.
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
October 31: The guards in a women’s prison in Ankara strip-searched Kurdish journalists Diren Yurtsever, Berivan Altan, Ceylan Şahinli, Habibe Eren and Öznur Değer.
October 31: The guards in a Bolu prison verbally threatened inmates during ward searches and confiscated items purchased from the prison cafeteria.
November 2: Gendarmes in Van mistreated two people during a house raid. One of the victims, a woman, was hospitalized due to the incident.
November 3: Yakup Brukanlı, an inmate incarcerated in a Konya prison, set himself on fire to protest the rights violations in the prison facility. Reports indicated that the incident occurred after the prison administration imposed restrictions on inmates’ right to visitation and outside communication for resisting strip-searches.
November 5: The guards in a Bolu prison physically assaulted disabled inmate Civan Boltan.
TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION
November 1: The United States Supreme Court declined to hear Turkey’s bid to dismiss two lawsuits filed by demonstrators who were assaulted by Turkish security forces during a presidential visit to Washington in 2017.
November 2: The pro-government Sabah newspaper published secretly taken photos of exiled journalist Levent Kenez, revealing his home address in Sweden. The same newspaper in recent weeks published secretly taken photos of two other Sweden-based dissidents as well as a journalist who lives in Germany.
November 3: Hakan Şükür, a former footballer who lives in the US, revealed in an interview that Turkey’s president demanded his extradition from the US in exchange for the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson who was incarcerated in Turkey.
November 3: Turkey’s top appeals court upheld the prison sentence of three years, four months handed down to Selahaddin Gülen, a teacher who was abducted from Kenya last year.
November 4: Unidentified assailants vandalized a car belonging to Murat Çetiner, an ex-police chief living in exile in Sweden who was recently targeted by a newspaper close to the Turkish government that revealed his home address and secretly taken photos.