Nov 27, 2023
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 34 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.
November 21: After 18 years of imprisonment, writer Sadık Aslan's release was postponed last May, but with a new decision of the Administrative and Monitoring Board, his release was postponed for another 3 months.
November 21: The release of Resul Baltacı, a political prisoner in Düzce Çilimli T Type Prison, has been prevented by arbitrary disciplinary penalties for 13 months.
November 23: An İstanbul court has ruled for the arrest of journalist Mehmet Kamış, the deputy editor-in-chief of a now-closed newspaper in Turkey, on charges of attempting to destroy the constitutional order due to his alleged role in a failed coup in 2016.
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.
November 21: Şırnak Governorate made a declaration on November 21, 2023 and banned all open-door meetings, demonstrations, marches, press declarations, sit-ins, rallies, pitching tents, petitions, opening stands, mass funerals and visits to cemeteries, commemorations, festivals, concerts, entertainment, performances, demonstrations and similar events for 7 days as of November 22, 2023.
November 23: The police intervened the press declaration in front of Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse about Type Y, S and R prisons and detained 6 people.
November 20: Pro-government media targeted main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel for attending the recent performance of a Kurdish opera singer along with Pervin Buldan, an MP from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) and other politicians from both parties.
November 21: A content on the EngelliWeb website was ordered to be blocked and deleted by the Istanbul 10th Criminal Judgeship of Peace on the grounds of violation of personal rights.
November 22: The content on ifade.org.tr website was banned to access on the grounds of violation of personal rights by Istanbul Penal Court of Peace No 10 on November 21, 2023 and the content was ordered to be deleted.
November 23: Turkish government agencies have requested the removal of a total of 90,400 web pages and other content from Google in the last decade.
November 23: Courts in eastern Turkey have convicted and handed down sentences to Kurdish journalists Hacı Boğatekin and Özgür Boğatekin.
November 24: A journalist, Levent Gültekin, in Turkey has been ordered to pay a fine of TL 25,000 ($866) on conviction of insulting Selçuk Bayraktar, the chief technical officer of Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) producer Baykar who is also the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
November 20: Meral Akşener, leader of the nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party, claimed that some Turkish police chiefs own hotels where prostitution is forced on orphaned girls.
November 24: Croatian drug lord Nenad Petrak acquired Turkish citizenship in 2022, while the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP Süleyman Soylu was interior minister.
November 21: Turkey’s Justice Ministry sought an INTERPOL Red Notice for famous Kurdish singer and activist Ferhat Tunç, who lives in exile in Germany, in line with an arrest warrant issued for him in 2021 for failing to attend court hearings.
November 24: Halil Aksoy, former Ağrı MP of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was detained in Istanbul on the grounds that he had a finalized prison sentence of 8 years and 9 months for 'being an illegal organization member' and was arrested by the court.
November 20: In Ankara Sincan High Security Closed Prison, 14 prisoners were given disciplinary penalties for taking halay to the song "Lê Amedê".
November 22: Mücella Yapıcı (72), a prominent architect and a defendant in the Gezi Park trial who was released from an İstanbul prison in September, has recounted the poor prison conditions she faced as an elderly woman.
November 24: Iranian artist and activist Shailin Asadollahi was detained in Turkey. She is known to be at risk of deportation to Iran.
November 23: Police in southern Turkey have allegedly stripped naked, hosed down and beat up a 20-year-old detainee suspected of trafficking unregistered firearms.
November 23: 2 people (H. Ş. and D. S.) who were detained by the police on the shore of Seyhan Dam Lake in Adana, on the grounds of 'trading weapons without a license', were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, threatened to death, and were wounded in various parts of their bodies due to torture and ill-treatment.
November 21: Orhan Çiftçi, the former governor of Kırklareli province, was acquitted of domestic violence charges despite compelling evidence against him
November 24: Published on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the report said at least 288 women were killed and 681 others have been subjected to violence by men since the beginning of this year.