29 December 2025 - 4 January 2026
Arbitrary Detention and Arrest
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 3 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.
Arbitrary Depriviation of Life
2 January: Ramazan Çınkır, a 45-year-old former civil servant dismissed by emergency decree after the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey over alleged links to the Gülen movement, died after state-funded treatment for his life-threatening Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria was cut.
29 December: Forced into unsafe and informal work after his dismissal by emergency decree, former police officer Hakan Ceniklioğlu died after months in intensive care following a workplace accident in Samsun, a case highlighted by rights lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu as emblematic of the deadly consequences faced by purge victims.
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
29 December: Journalist and documentary producer Gökhan Mezarcı was briefly detained in Ankara on accusations of insulting municipal officials over remarks made while reporting at a city animal shelter and later released under judicial supervision.
30 December: A Turkish journalist, Fatih Ergin, was briefly detained on accusations of spreading misinformation over social media posts criticizing security failures after a deadly ISIL-linked police operation in Yalova, then released under judicial supervision as authorities imposed a sweeping media blackout.
31 December: Turkish authorities have again blocked journalist Furkan Karabay’s accounts on X and Instagram and banned access to one of his YouTube reports on national security grounds.
Human Rights Defenders
31 December: Hatice Onaran, a 60-year-old disabled human rights defender undergoing cancer treatment, was twice returned to prison after consecutive hospitalizations despite doctors’ findings and lawyers’ pleas for sentence suspension.
2 January: A prison board at Marmara Prison has denied conditional release to human rights lawyer Selçuk Kozağaçlı over alleged lack of good conduct, a decision reported by Etkin News Agency that has renewed concerns about the politicization of parole and probation procedures.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
2 January: Turkey has extended for two months the mandate of a state-appointed trustee governing the city of Mardin, keeping the municipality under central control despite the acquittal of elected mayor Ahmet Türk.
Kurdish Minority
30 December: A Turkish court has refused to release Ayşe Gökkan, a former mayor and prominent women’s rights defender, keeping her in prison during a retrial on a remaining PKK-related charge despite the prosecutor’s request for release after multiple convictions were overturned.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
4 December: Gezi case prisoner Tayfun Kahraman, who remains jailed despite a violation ruling by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, has been hospitalized since January 2 at İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine for intensive corticosteroid treatment after suffering an MS attack that has caused leg weakness and raised paralysis risk, his lawyer Cansu Çifçi said while seeking his urgent release.
Transnational Repression
31 December: A Turkish lawyer, Emre Çınar, who has lived in Mozambique since 2017 and represents the Willow International School in Maputo, was detained on Tuesday following an extradition request from Turkey over alleged Gülen movement links, raising concerns among human rights groups about non-refoulement and Ankara’s ongoing campaign of transnational repression.
Women’s Rights
29 December: A man released under Turkey’s controversial 11th Judicial Reform Package strangled his partner to death in Diyarbakır just three days later, a case that has reignited criticism from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party over the early release of criminal offenders while political prisoners remain incarcerated.
2 January: An annual report by Socio-Political Field Research Center (SAMER) recorded 420 femicides and 508 suspicious deaths of women in Turkey in 2025, alongside widespread sexual and physical violence, as critics link persistent impunity to government policies following Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.
