Turkey Rights Monitor - Issue 263
- Solidarity with Others
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 22 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.
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
2 July: Turkish police detained 42 people during a major rally at İstanbul City Hall marking 100 days since Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s arrest, as protests over his politically charged detention continue.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA
2 July: Four staff members of Turkish satirical magazine LeMan were jailed pending trial for “publicly insulting religious values” over a controversial cartoon, as authorities also launched a financial investigation and blocked the outlet’s website amid protests and government condemnation.
2 July: Cumhuriyet newspaper reporters İrem Karataş, Erdem Öktem, and Engin Deniz İpek were handcuffed behind their backs and detained by police while covering a CHP rally in Saraçhane Square, Fatih, İstanbul.
4 July: Turkey’s media watchdog RTÜK will impose simultaneous 10-day broadcast blackouts on opposition-aligned Halk TV and Sözcü TV starting July 8 over their protest coverage.
4 July: Turkish police detained Boğaziçi University graduate Doruk Dörücü for tearing up his diploma during a commencement speech denouncing the government's revocation of Ekrem İmamoğlu’s degree and labeling the regime “despotic.”
JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE & RULE OF LAW
2 July: With 21,200 pending cases—35.2% of the total—Turkey remains the country with the highest number of applications before the European Court of Human Rights, reflecting deepening legal and human rights concerns since the post-2016 purge targeting alleged Gülen movement affiliates.
4 July: In a politically charged operation targeting opposition-run municipalities, Turkish authorities detained 120 people in İzmir, including former İzmir Mayor Tunç Soyer and CHP İzmir Chair Şenol Aslanoğlu, over corruption allegations related to subcontracting at municipal company İZBETON, with 60 of them—Soyer included—formally arrested.
5 July: In a widening crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition, three more CHP mayors—Zeydan Karalar (Adana), Muhittin Böcek (Antalya), and Abdurrahman Tutdere (Adıyaman)—were detained on corruption charges, prompting strong backlash from the party, which denounced the arrests as politically motivated efforts to undermine the 2024 local election results.
7 July: Ankara’s chief public prosecutor has launched a new investigation into CHP leader Özgür Özel for allegedly insulting President Erdoğan and inciting crime following his strong criticism of recent mayoral arrests.
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
3 July: The 2025 Global Torture Index classifies Turkey as a “high-risk” country for torture and ill-treatment, citing systemic abuse, rampant impunity, overcrowded prisons, political repression, and legal frameworks that obstruct justice, particularly under post-coup emergency powers and vague anti-terror laws.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
4 July: In the first half of 2025, 145 women were murdered and 215 died under suspicious circumstances in Turkey, where femicide remains a chronic issue following the 2021 withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.
