ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 100 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.
1 May: Turkish police detained 14 former military officers and 2 civilians in raids carried out in Ankara for alleged links to the Gülen movement.
3 May: 30 former police officers alleged to be members of the Gülen movement and allegedly mentioned in ByLock content were detained.
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
1 May: Turkish police on Wednesday detained 210 people after authorities banned May Day rallies at İstanbul’s central Taksim Square.
3 May: Turkish police on Friday detained 29 people who had resisted law enforcement on Wednesday in an attempt to hold a demonstration in İstanbul’s central Taksim Square to mark International Workers’ Day despite a government ban.
3 May: In Ankara, the police intervened the march in Kuğulu Park for the beginning of the 19th Workers' Film Festival and prevented the march.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA
2 May: A Turkish court sentenced journalist Barış Terkoğlu to a two-year jail sentence for two news articles “targeting” a public official employed in counterterrorism.
2 May: Documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Koray Kesik was detained in a house raid in Izmir on 2 May 2024.
3 May: The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), Turkey’s broadcasting and streaming regulator, has fined two TV stations due to their content critical of ruling party or government members.
3 May: Turkish authorities cancelled the screening of a documentary that shed light on the challenges faced by victims of Turkey’s post-coup purge shortly before it was scheduled to be shown during a film festival in Ankara.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
30 April: Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has upheld a prison sentence handed down to the head of the now-closed Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) Selçuk Kozağaçlı, also a prominent human rights activist and lawyer, who has been behind bars for more than seven years on “membership in a terrorist organization” and “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” charges.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
2 May: Afyonkarahisar Municipality announced on its social media account that the wedding fee of 400 TL for citizenship holders was increased to 10 thousand TL for asylum seekers.
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
30 April: Esra Solin Dal, one of 9 journalists who were detained in house raids in Istanbul, Ankara and Urfa on 23 April 2024, through an investigation initiated in 2022, was subjected to strip search during detention.
1 May: Three brothers – İbrahim Emre, Muhammed Emre and Üsame Emre — imprisoned on conviction of alleged links to the Gülen movement, were not allowed to attend the funeral of their younger sister, Sümeyra Emre, who died on April 25 from injuries sustained in a car accident on the way back from visiting brothers Muhammed and Üsame at Kepsut Prison in Balıkesir.
1 May: Van High Security Prison is facing allegations of arbitrary practices affecting inmates’ access to healthcare and legal consultations.
2 May: A report drafted by a bar association in Turkey has revealed how a Turkish educator renditioned to Turkey from Kyrgyzstan by Turkish intelligence in 2021 due to his links to a faith-based group recounted instances of torture and death threats he was subjected to in custody.
