15-21 December 2025
Arbitrary Detention and Arrest
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 300 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.
17 December: Turkish authorities have detained 160 people in operations across 39 provinces over alleged links to the Gülen movement in the past two weeks, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, citing accusations including payphone contacts and use of the ByLock app despite repeated rulings by the European Court of Human Rights that such use is not a criminal offense.
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
15 December: Students from the Student Collectives who traveled to Ankara to submit 20,000 signatures demanding that KYK scholarships be raised to half the minimum wage (11,052 lira) were blocked by police while marching to parliament, with pepper spray used and 10 students—including one minor—detained.
18 December: Social media users launched a campaign calling for the release of academic Aslı Aydemir, who has been held in pretrial detention for over five months on disputed charges stemming from protests over a cartoon in LeMan, with rights groups including Academics for Peace backing her release.
Freedom of Expression and Media
15 December: Veteran journalist Elif Akkuş was dismissed for a third time by Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT despite two court rulings ordering her reinstatement, with TRT again relying on an absenteeism claim that courts had already rejected, following years of disciplinary investigations, multiple detentions, and her acquittal by the Ankara 34th High Criminal Court.
16 December: A Turkish court sentenced former ruling party lawmaker Hüseyin Kocabıyık to more than two years in prison for “insulting the president” over remarks criticizing the AKP, ordering his release under an international travel ban.
19 December: A Turkish court has put journalist Nisanur Yıldırım on trial for insult and defamation after her reporting for Nefes Gazetesi on a luxury hotel project linked to the private company of Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
Human Rights Defenders
17 December: A Turkish court sentenced Kurdish lawyer and human rights defender Suna Bilgin to more than six years in prison for alleged membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a conviction her lawyers say is based solely on peaceful human rights activities and a single disputed witness statement.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
17 December: Turkish prosecutors have moved to lift the parliamentary immunity of opposition MP Deniz Yavuzyılmaz over a social media post sharing a 1994 asset declaration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, seeking up to four years in prison on charges of unlawfully disseminating personal data.
16 December: The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey violated the rights of 2,420 people convicted of terrorism over alleged Gülen movement ties by imposing criminal liability without a legal basis and denying fair trials—mainly through treating ByLock use as decisive proof—issuing follow-up judgments to its 2023 pilot ruling in the Yalçınkaya case.
17 December: Turkey’s state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) now controls 1,123 companies employing nearly 56,000 people and holding 361.2 billion lira in assets after courts expanded trustee appointments and asset seizures—most recently including GAİN Media—amid a crackdown critics link to political motives following the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, while analysts cited by the Financial Times say the fund has been used to reshape parts of the economy.
Kurdish Minority
19 December: A court in eastern Turkey ordered the pretrial detention of journalist Cihan Berk, a correspondent for the pro-Kurdish Pir News Agency, on unspecified terrorism-related charges after a police raid on his home in Tunceli.
18 December: A Turkish court overturned an enforcement judge’s decision and blocked the probation of Selçuk Mızraklı, the former co-mayor of Diyarbakır, after upholding the refusal of the Prison Administration and Observation Board on the grounds that he had not declared disassociation from a terrorist organization.
Prison Conditions
16 December: The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey violated the right to family life of prisoner Rafet Emre by refusing to transfer him closer to his family without an individualized assessment of the severe hardship caused by years-long detention far from his wife and children, finding a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
17 December: Turkey’s prison population has surged to 433,543—42 percent over capacity—according to Civil Society in the Penal System, keeping the country first in Europe for incarceration rates per Council of Europe data, as the government plans to expand prisons while reviving an early release scheme under the ruling Justice and Development Party’s 11th Judicial Package.
Refugees and Migrants
16 December: Human Rights Watch said Turkey has arbitrarily labeled Uyghur refugees as security threats using administrative restriction codes, leading to detentions and deportations to third countries where they risk return to China, a practice the group says has intensified alongside improving Ankara–Beijing relations and violates the principle of non-refoulement.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
18 December: Two pregnant women, Nazife Karakoç and Leyla Arslan, imprisoned at Edirne L-Type Prison over alleged links to the Gülen movement, have been subjected to harsh treatment during hospital visits including being denied food for hours despite serious health risks, their families told TR724.
Transnational Repression
21 December: Amnesty International Kenya warned that Turkish refugee Mustafa Güngör, detained in Kenya along with his family at Turkey’s request, faces a serious risk of refoulement to Turkey over alleged links to the Gülen movement, despite holding valid refugee status, amid broader concerns about Ankara’s transnational repression.
