25-31 August 2025
Arbitrary Detention and Arrest
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 14 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 Expression and Media
28 August: Ankara’s 23rd Administrative Court upCCheld a five-day broadcast ban and heavy fine against pro-opposition channel TELE1 over comments on the 2016 coup attempt, a move journalists’ groups denounced as part of RTÜK’s systematic censorship of critical media in Turkey.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
26 August: Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) will auction off seized companies including HES Kablo, RHG Enerjitürk, İstikbal Mobilya and Aydınlı Giyim in September, assets once valued at $1.57 billion, in what critics call the culmination of mass confiscations targeting alleged Gülen movement affiliates without due process.
26 August: A second lawyer for jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Nusret Yılmaz, has been detained on bribery allegations, intensifying concerns that the government is targeting his legal defense as part of a broader crackdown on the opposition-run municipality.
30 August: The İstanbul chief public prosecutor has indicted 10 CHP officials, including İstanbul provincial chair Özgür Çelik, over alleged election irregularities at the party’s 2023 provincial congress, seeking prison terms of up to three years in what observers describe as part of a wider judicial crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition.
Kurdish Minority
29 August: In Niğde’s Bor district, 24 Kurdish seasonal workers were subjected to a racist attack by a group led by a landowner, leaving one worker critically injured in intensive care.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
27 August: Imprisoned TV manager Ayşe Barım, facing up to 30 years over alleged links to the 2013 Gezi protests, warned in an open letter that she is at imminent risk of death from severe heart and brain conditions, as doctors and rights groups insist prison cannot provide the life-saving care she urgently needs.
28 August: Kalender Özdemir, investment director at Istanbul’s opposition-run municipality, was sent back to Silivri Prison after emergency heart surgery following a prison heart attack, sparking outrage from his family and rights groups who warn the move endangers his life.
30 August: Alzheimer’s patient and political prisoner İbrahim Güngör, 73, jailed over alleged Gülen links, is in intensive care and reportedly near death after being returned to prison despite severe health problems.
Women’s Rights
31 August: At Boğaziçi University, women students staged a protest after 15-year-old Hilal was shot dead on campus by her ex-boyfriend, condemning femicide, campus security failures under trustee rule, and vowing, “We will not allow our sister to be forgotten.”
