ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST
August 11: Reports revealed that purged academic and resistance figure Nuriye Gülmen was among those detained on August 5 during a police raid on İstanbul’s İdil Culture Center. Gülmen was subsequently arrested by a court, according to a law office.
August 14: The Constitutional Court rejected a request for the release of jailed lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal who have been on a hunger strike since February to demand fair trial, despite a medical report which found their health condition unfit to stay in prison.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
August 12: Police briefly detained 33 women protesting against government project to pull Turkey out of the İstanbul Convention, the Council of Europe treaty to protect women against domestic violence.
August 12: The governor’s office in Bitlis imposed a curfew in 36 villages until further notice, citing anti-terror operations.
August 13: The governor’s office in Muş imposed a ban on all outdoor gatherings for 15 days.
August 13: The police in İstanbul intervened in a women’s protest, detaining four people.
August 14: The governor’s office in Tunceli imposed a ban on all outdoor gatherings for 15 days.
August 14: An Ankara court ruled to block access to news reports on the Cumhuriyet, Sözcü and Milli Gazete newspapers on a state agency responsible for agricultural loans.
August 15: The governor’s office in Gaziantep imposed a ban on all outdoor gatherings for 15 days.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA
August 11: A member of a leftist party in Denizli was detained over his social media posts.
August 12: An İstanbul court ruled to block access to online news reports about a friend of President Erdoğan’s son who won a public tender of more than €30 million.
August 13: Five people were detained in Bursa over their social media posts. One of the detainees were subsequently arrested by a court while four others were released.
August 13: A person in Diyarbakır was detained over his social media posts.
August 14: Turkey’s Interior Ministry released a statement announcing that authorities launched investigations into 6,743 social media users over their posts.
August 14: Turkey’s media regulator RTÜK imposed fines against KRT TV and Radyo Harman over their guests’ comments criticizing the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Syria policy.
August 14: The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) blocked access to Jin News, a pro-Kurdish news outlet.
August 14: The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) blocked access to the website of Özgürüz Radyo led by exiled journalist Can Dündar.
August 14: The governor’s office in Kırklareli announced that it launched an investigation into a family doctor who spoke to the Cumhuriyet newspaper about the Covid-19 cases in the province, alleging widespread cover-up of test results by private sector to keep their workers at workplace.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
August 13: The police in Ankara detained seven activists known for their advocacy for reinstatement of thousands of people purged from public service in the aftermath of a failed coup in July 2016, including Acun Karadağ, Alev Şahin and Nazan Bozkurt.
KURDISH MINORITY
August 11: A total of 14 women were killed by men, two inmates died in prison, and three law enforcement officers were found dead under suspicious circumstances in the Kurdish-majority southeast during the first six months of 2020, according to a report by the Human Rights Association’s (İHD) Diyarbakır branch.
August 15: The police detained two co-chairs of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the provinces of Aydın and Muş.
August 15: The police in Şırnak detained 14 people including HDP executives.
MILITARY OPERATIONS ABROAD
August 14: Turkish forces in northeastern Syria reportedly cut off water from the Kurdish-held city of Hasakah.
August 14: A Turkey-backed armed group in Syria’s Afrin arrested a Christian Kurdish man, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The man was reportedly accused of apostasy by the rebel faction.
OTHER MINORITIES
August 12: A group of trans women were reportedly assaulted in Antalya.
August 13: Reports said that some graves in an Armenian cemetery in the capital city of Ankara were desecrated, a development that was interpreted as another sign of a growing climate of hostility towards minority groups in the country.
PRISON CONDITIONS
August 15: A report claimed that Turkish police deliberately put a political detainee in a cell with a suspected ISIS suicide bomber in an attempt to coerce the detainee into signing a self-incriminating statement.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
August 16: Greece reportedly pushed back 17 Turkish political asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea, leaving them adrift in Turkey’s territorial waters. The migrants were subsequently detained by Turkish authorities.