22-28 September 2025
Arbitrary Detention and Arrest
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 38 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.
24 September: The UK Home Office’s updated August 2025 asylum guidance on Turkey’s Gülen movement highlights mass prosecutions, torture allegations, dismissal of 125,000 civil servants, cancellation of over 230,000 passports, and transnational abductions, reaffirming that persecution of alleged followers remains systemic and protection is generally unavailable inside Turkey.
26 September: Former biology teacher Şeyma Aslan, sentenced to six years and 10 months for alleged Gülen movement links, was arrested in Edirne İpsala, and sent to Edirne L-Type Prison together with her 12-month-old daughter, while her appeal is still pending at the Supreme Court.
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
25 September: Police and private security intervened in a student club fair at Ege University, detaining around 20 students who said they were exercising their democratic right to distribute newspapers and magazines.
Freedom of Expression and Media
23 September: Turkish prosecutors launched a criminal probe into pro-opposition broadcaster TELE1 after a subtitle mistakenly read “What is the difference between RTE [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] and Netanyahu?”, detaining three journalists under Article 299 despite the channel’s apology, in what critics see as part of escalating press freedom restrictions.
24 September: Turkish prosecutors indicted lawyer Burak Saldıroğlu for allegedly “targeting public officials in counterterrorism” over a social media post criticizing İstanbul Chief Prosecutor Akın Gürlek and a judge, amid a broader crackdown on opposition figures including jailed CHP leader Ekrem İmamoğlu.
24 September: Journalist Feyza Nur Çalıkoğlu of Karar Newspaper faces up to three years in prison after prosecutors, acting on a complaint from the Presidency of Migration Management, indicted her under Article 217/A for reporting on suicides and abuse at the Çatalca Deportation Center.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
24 September: An İstanbul court suspended the CHP’s extraordinary provincial congress despite an election board ruling allowing it to proceed, but delegates re-elected Özgür Çelik as chair, with opposition leaders denouncing the move as a “judicial coup” and markets sliding amid political uncertainty.
24 September: Selahattin Demirtaş went on trial at Diyarbakır 18th Criminal Court of First Instance, facing charges of insulting the Turkish state, incitement to hatred, incitement to commit crimes, praising crime and criminals, and violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations over 2016 speeches, with the next hearing set for January 19, 2026.
25 September: Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund appointed two pro-government columnists to run Habertürk TV, Show TV and other outlets seized from Can Holding in a money-laundering probe, part of a wave of corporate takeovers critics say are used to tighten state control over media.
27 September: Turkish prosecutors have arrested five former Ankara Metropolitan Municipality officials and event company executives in a corruption probe alleging inflated contracts and a 154 million lira ($3.7 million) loss from 32 cultural events between 2021 and 2024, a case the opposition CHP rejects as politically driven targeting of its municipalities.
Kurdish Minority
22 September: An Ankara court blocked access to the Brussels-based Fırat News Agency (anf-news.com) on September 19 citing national security and public order, continuing Turkey’s long-running pattern of restrictions on Kurdish media and digital freedoms.
26 September: Turkey’s Constitutional Court rejected most rights violation claims over the 2015 killing of Kurdish mother of nine Taybet İnan, whose body lay in the street for a week during curfews in Şırnak, finding only a violation in burial restrictions, while her family plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Refugees and Migrants
24 September: Moldovan worker Nicolai Palamarciuc died after being tied up and brutally beaten by his employer’s relatives in an İstanbul leather workshop, highlighting systemic exploitation and violence faced by migrant laborers in Turkey’s precarious labor market.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
22 September: The family of nearly paralyzed inmate Dede Anıl, who suffers from severe brain damage, heart failure and COPD, is demanding his release after Turkey’s forensics institute deemed him fit to remain jailed despite doctors’ reports finding him 98 percent disabled.
25 September: DEM Party lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu called for the release of 49-year-old Ayşe Solak, a stage-three breast cancer patient serving six years, eight months in Aydın Prison for alleged Gülen links based on ByLock use and bank records, denouncing her continued detention as inhumane and politically motivated.
