17-23 August 2026
Arbitrary Detention and Arrest
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 0 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
18 August: Turkish gendarmes briefly detained four villagers in Rize during a protest against a commercial fish farming project that residents say threatens traditional fishing grounds and restricts their access to the local harbor.
19 August: Turkish police removed relatives of fallen conscripts and veterans from Ankara’s Güvenpark on the 38th day of their sit-in demanding equal pensions and social benefits with career military personnel.
Freedom of Expression and Media
20 August: Turkish filmmakers accused the Culture and Tourism Ministry of censorship after it revoked funding for Bingöl Elmas’s documentary on Cappadocia and demanded repayment with interest, allegedly because the film included criticism of the ministry over environmental destruction.
Freedom of Religion
19 August: Turkish police detained government critic and Islamic cleric Alparslan Kuytul, his wife and other Furkan Foundation members in raids across six provinces over alleged criminal and financial offenses, one day after a senior adviser to President Erdoğan publicly warned Kuytul that “his turn” would come.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
21 August: Turkish police detained a second lawyer representing government critic Alparslan Kuytul as an investigation into the Furkan movement expanded to 62 detentions, prompting concerns over interference with the right to legal counsel.
18 August: Turkey’s new law specifically aimed for the Kurdish peace process introduced a conditional system allowing certain PKK-related investigations, trials and prison sentences to be suspended for five or 10 years if the PKK and affiliated groups fully disarm and cease their activities.
Kurdish Minority
18 August: Turkish authorities blocked the social media accounts of several Kurdish news outlets and journalist Öznur Değer under national security and public order provisions, prompting press groups to denounce the measures as digital censorship.
20 August: Nurse İkra Avcı was dismissed from her public hospital job despite being acquitted of terrorism-related charges over a video in which she braided her hair in solidarity with a Kurdish woman killed in Syria.
Refugees and Migrants
19 August: A 22-year-old Syrian man died of a brain hemorrhage after relatives found him seriously injured outside an İstanbul hospital where he had reportedly remained for two days following a traffic accident, prompting an official investigation into possible medical negligence.
19 August: A 4-year-old Yazidi boy with severe epilepsy is being held with his mother and sibling at an İzmir deportation center, where his medication ran out and the family has faced difficulties obtaining a new supply.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
20 August: The Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) reported that detainees arrested ahead of NATO’s July 7–8 Ankara summit were beaten, held in prolonged isolation and denied adequate access to outdoor exercise, clean water and other basic necessities in prisons in Antalya, Kayseri and Konya, and said it would file criminal complaints against prison officials.
22 August: The İzmir branch of the Human Rights Association called for the immediate release of seriously ill prisoner Enver Yanık, citing multiple chronic conditions, severe mobility and memory problems, repeated loss of consciousness, prolonged isolation and inadequate access to medical treatment at Menemen R-Type Prison.
