ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 234 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 and Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit, former public sector workers who were sacked from their jobs by decree-laws during the 2016-2018 state of emergency and who were reported missing respectively as of August 6, 2019 and December 29, 2020, in what appear to be the latest cases in a string of suspected enforced disappearance of government critics since 2016.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION
June 14: The police in İstanbul detained activist Nursel Tanrıverdi while staging a sit-in to protest her summary removal from her public service job in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt.
June 14: The Osmaniye Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 15 days.
June 15: The police in Ankara briefly detained activists Nursel Tanrıverdi, Merve Demirel and Muhammet Yıldız while on their way to a meeting with parliamentarians.
June 15: The Bitlis Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 15 days.
June 16: The police in Ankara blocked a women’s rights protest, briefly detaining 18 people.
June 16: The police in Ankara blocked a workers’ protest, detaining six people.
June 16: The police in İzmir blocked a demonstration organized by students, briefly detaining four people.
June 16: The Hakkari Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 15 days.
June 17: The police in İstanbul detained two people staging a sit-in to protest the attack on the HDP İzmir office. One of the detainees were arrested the next day by a court while the other was released under judicial supervision.
June 17: The police in İstanbul detained two leftist activists for hanging a banner on a building about the attack on the HDP İzmir office.
June 17: The Van Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 15 days.
June 18: The police in Rize briefly detained an activist who took part in environmental protests against the construction of a stone quarry on terrorism-related charges.
June 18: Amnesty International released a briefing in which it said that Turkey exploits measures prescribed by international watchdogs to combat money laundering and terrorism financing in a bid to target civil society organizations.
June 19: The police in Batman blocked a demonstration about the attack on the HDP İzmir office, briefly detaining 16 people.
June 19: The police in İstanbul blocked a protest organized by a women’s rights group, briefly detaining six people.
June 19: The police in Ankara blocked a demonstration about the attack on the HDP İzmir office, briefly detaining four people.
June 19: The Muş Governor’s Office issued a ban on all outdoor gatherings for a period of 15 days.
June 20: The police in İstanbul briefly detained two activists for graffiti painting walls about the attack on the HDP İzmir office.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA
June 15: An İstanbul prosecutor indicted Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yücel on charges of insulting the president over an article he penned in 2016.
June 15: The European Court of Human Rights faulted Turkey over the conviction of Ömür Çağdaş Ersoy for insulting then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2012 and the dismissal of contractual public sector employee Selma Melike for clicking the “Like” button on Facebook posts.
June 15: An İstanbul court acquitted journalists Alican Uludağ and Olcay Büyüktaş Akça of the charge of disclosing the identity of a counterterrorism informant. The journalists stood trial over a news report about a deadly bomb attack in Ankara in 2015.
June 16: The police in Van detained journalist Lokman Gezgin on account of a previous prison sentence that he had received. Later in the same day Gezgin was sent to prison to serve his sentence.
June 16: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to news reports about a media tycoon’s ties to the government.
June 17: Ankara prosecutors indicted Ankara Bar Association executives over their criticism of homophobic statements made by the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), seeking up to two years in jail for insulting a public official.
June 17: The police in Rize detained Mehmet Ali Sancaktutan on charges of insulting the president after he criticized the government’s economic policies in a street interview that went viral on social media.
June 17: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to news reports about public tenders granted to a company where a ruling party member is an executive.
June 17: An İstanbul administrative court rejected appeal against a district government decision to ban a Kurdish-language theater play on the grounds that the theater hall had links to terrorism.
June 18: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to news reports on unanswered parliamentary written questions about a paramilitary organization run by a pro-government figure.
June 18: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to news reports and tweets about a pro-government charity organization’s alleged ties to radical armed groups in Syria.
June 18: Actor Levent Üzümcü announced that he was summoned by an İstanbul prosecutor for questioning over a tweet.
JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE & RULE OF LAW
June 16: The Constitutional Court allowed the Presidential Communications Directorate to access data of Turkish citizens in all public agencies.
June 18: The European Court of Human Rights requested a statement from Turkey regarding the cases of 256 people including judges and prosecutors who were jailed over links to the Gülen movement.
KURDISH MINORITY
June 15: The Interior Ministry removed from office Necla Tamriş, a district co-mayor in Diyarbakır as well as district council members Bahar Karakaş Uluğ, Nursel Akbal, Ruken Bekalp, Emine Kaya and Sevican Yaşar.
June 15: An Ankara court ruled to release under judicial control former Kars mayor Ayhan Bilgen, along with three other defendants in a trial over a series of protests in predominantly Kurdish cities in 2014.
June 16: The police in İstanbul detained nine HDP youth members. Eight of the detainees were released on June 20 while one was arrested by a court.
June 16: The police in İstanbul detained local HDP executive Serhat Aktumar.
June 16: The police in Adana detained local HDP member Muhammet Erkis.
June 17: An gunman in İzmir attacked the HDP provincial office in what appears to be a racially motivated act of terrorism, killing party employee Deniz Poyraz. The HDP accused the police of failing to intervene swiftly.
June 17: An İstanbul administrative court rejected appeal against a district government decision to ban a Kurdish-language theater play on the grounds that the theater hall had links to terrorism.
June 18: A rapporteur at the Constitutional Court completed their examination of an indictment seeking the closure of the pro-Kurdish HDP and asked for its acceptance by the court.
June 20: The police in Ağrı detained local HDP member Coşkun Çetres.
MILITARY OPERATIONS ABROAD
June 17: Media reports revealed that Onur Gencer, a 27-year-old man who carried out a deadly armed attack on the HDP provincial office in İzmir, had previously posted photos of himself on social media in which he is seen holding automatic weapons in the Syrian provinces of Manbij and Aleppo where the Turkish military conducted cross-border operations and seized swathes of land from Kurdish militias.
MISTREATMENT OF CITIZENS ABROAD
June 19: Kyrgyz officials failed to locate and find Turkish-Kyrgyz educator Orhan İnandı three weeks into his disappearance in Bishkek. An official from the German Foreign Ministry revealed that the federal government contacted Kyrgyz authorities earlier this month regarding the situation of İnandı who is allegedly being held against his will in the Turkish Embassy in Bishkek.
PRISON CONDITIONS
June 18: Pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP asked the parliament to debate the situation of sick inmates in prisons, citing Justice Ministry data that 2,300 have died behind bars since 2009. According to statistics published by the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are currently 1,605 sick prisoners in Turkish prisons.
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
June 16: The guards at a Batman prison physically assaulted inmates for not standing up during a regular head count.
June 18: Plainclothes police officers in İstanbul detained two men name Erdoğan Turgut and Baran Kırgın while talking about the attack on the HDP İzmir office, and took them to a police station where they were battered.
June 18: The police in Şanlıurfa inflicted violence on Abdullah Basiyan during a house raid.
June 20: Newly released video footage showed police officers battering a man named Birol Yıldırım shortly before his death at an İstanbul police station on June 5.