Turkey Rights Monitor - Issue 261

Solidarity with Others
Jun 23
3 min read

Updated: Jun 24

ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST

Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 96 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.

17 June: Turkish authorities have detained 56 people in recent nationwide operations targeting alleged members of the faith-based Gülen movement, including the fathers of teenage girls on trial in the widely criticized “Detained Minor Girls Case” accusing them of organizing educational activities, having social connections with people who were dismissed from their public duties by decree-law(KHK).

21 June: Sueda Güngör, a young woman who publicly advocated for the release of her Alzheimer’s-stricken father imprisoned in Turkey, was arrested on June 21 along with 41 others over alleged links to the Gülen movement.

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

17 June: Two local union leaders from the DİSK-affiliated Genel-İş were arrested in İzmir for allegedly “insulting the president” during protests against the jailing of opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA

16 June: Turkish investigative journalist Metin Cihan, known for his exposés on government-linked activities including continued Turkish-Israeli trade during the Gaza conflict, has had both his X accounts—“metcihan” and “metincih”—blocked in Turkey on national security and public order grounds.

JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE & RULE OF LAW

17 June: Ultranationalist Victory Party leader Ümit Özdağ was released from İstanbul’s Silivri Prison on June 17 after receiving a two-year, four-month sentence for inciting hatred, having been arrested in January shortly after criticizing the government’s refugee and national security policies.

19 June: A Council of Europe GRECO delegation urged Turkey on Thursday to urgently implement long-standing anti-corruption reforms, warning that only 3 of 22 recommendations have been fulfilled in over nine years, with persistent concerns over judicial independence.

20 June: Lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, who represents jailed opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested on charges of membership in a criminal organization, prompting strong condemnation from the İstanbul Bar Association, which called the move a blatant violation of constitutional rights and an attempt to criminalize legitimate legal defense.

KURDISH MINORITY

17 June: In Turkey’s Manisa province, a high school student was arrested for allegedly spreading “terrorist propaganda” after writing the Kurdish slogan “Jin, jiyan, azadî” and criticizing government-appointed trustees on a wall.

PRISON CONDITIONS

17 June: Families of inmates at Gaziantep L-Type Prison report severe water cuts over the past three days amid extreme heat and overcrowding.

17 June: Delal Tekdemir, co-mayor of Doğubayazıt, who was being held in İstanbul Bakırköy Women’s Prison and was set to complete her sentence, had her release postponed by four months by the Prison Administration and Observation Board on the grounds of “lack of good behavior.”

TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT

17 June: Despite suffering from paralysis, a brain tumor, chronic kidney disease, and multiple heart attacks, 73-year-old political prisoner Mehmet Emin Çam was again deemed fit to remain incarcerated by Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine, prompting criticism of politically motivated medical assessments and inhumane prison conditions.

18 June: Journalist Perihan Sevda Erkılınç, jailed over May Day-related coverage, has been denied access to vital medications and proper gluten-free nutrition for her celiac disease in Bakırköy Women’s Prison.