1-7 June 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
5 June: A Euromed Rights report found that flawed investigations into suspicious deaths in Turkey have weakened accountability and contributed to impunity for right-to-life violations.
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
3 June: Miners in Tekirdağ province, who say they have not received their salaries since February and overtime payments for nearly a year, were blocked by gendarmerie and police while marching to the company’s headquarters to demand payment of their wages.
Freedom of Expression and Media
3 June: A Turkish court ordered an access block on pro-opposition Cumhuriyet Newspaper’s X account, which has around 3.5 million followers, citing national security and public order, amid social media censorship targeting opposition journalists and news outlets.
5 June: Former Kurdish lawmaker Mahmut Alınak, 74, was arrested and sent to prison in Kars after Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction for insulting President Erdoğan over a 2017 book about the Cizre curfews.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
2 June: A Turkish court banned access to Canan Coşkun’s “Visa Empire” investigation, which examined alleged corruption, conflicts of interest and data-security failures involving VFS Global’s Turkish subcontractor and its reported links to former foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Kurdish Minority
2 June: Pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency reporter Sema Bingöl and Tüm Bel-Sen executive Bülent Türkmen were detained during a police intervention at an Ethem Sarısülük commemoration in Ankara’s Güvenpark.
4 June: A Turkish court sentenced PİRHA journalist Cihan Berk to six years and three months in prison on terrorism-related membership charges at the second hearing of his trial, in a case his lawyers say lacked concrete evidence and criminalized journalism.
Prison Conditions
3 June: A TİHEK report found that 25 children aged 0 to 6 living with their mothers in Bursa Yenişehir Women’s Closed Prison face health and developmental risks from inadequate nutrition, hygiene, sleeping arrangements, childcare and educational support, amid wider concerns over prison overcrowding in Turkey.
5 June: Turkey’s prison population reached 421,583 as of June 1, about 138 percent of official capacity, with more than 116,000 inmates above available places and 4,673 minors in detention.
Transnational Repression
1 June: A PACE legal affairs committee adopted a draft resolution calling for stronger international measures against transnational repression, citing Turkey among states accused of targeting dissidents abroad through abductions, attacks, surveillance and misuse of INTERPOL, extradition and financial due diligence systems.
3 June: A confidential Turkish police document indicates that Turkey monitored lawful Gülen-linked civic activities in the Netherlands, including event photos, names and organizational ties, raising concerns that such “post-flight activities” could be used in terrorism-related proceedings against participants if they return to Turkey.
Women’s Rights
3 June: Bianet’s May 2026 “Male Violence Tally” reported that men killed at least 14 women and two children in Turkey, while also subjecting at least 46 women to violence, harassing 18 women, abusing 14 children and forcing 106 women into sex work.
