20-26 July 2026
Arbitrary Detention and Arrest
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 126 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.
20 July: At least 668 people were detained across Turkey and 179 were jailed pending trial in security operations surrounding NATO’s July summit in Ankara, with a Turkish court later releasing nine detainees, including a journalist, an academic, environmental volunteers and a labor representative, while their prosecutions continue.
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
23 July: Workers at the Yunus Emre Thermal Power Plant secured payment of 5 million lira of nearly 7 million lira in unpaid wages after launching a march to Ankara, while two DİSK/Enerji-Sen leaders detained during a police intervention were later released.
Freedom of Expression and Media
22 July: A Turkish court released DW Turkish reporter Alican Uludağ under judicial supervision, including a travel ban and four weekly police check-ins, after he spent about 25 hours in custody over a social media post criticizing Turkey’s judicial system and violations of the presumption of innocence.
Judicial Independence & Rule of Law
20 July: Turkish police detained İzmit Mayor Fatma Kaplan Hürriyet, her husband and a CHP district official among 28 people taken into custody in a 31-suspect corruption investigation, as the number of CHP-run municipalities targeted since the 2024 local elections rose to at least 39, with 26 incumbent mayors currently jailed.
24 July: Following a court ruling that removed him as CHP leader and reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Özgür Özel resigned from the CHP with 90 lawmakers and founded the New Party, which is set to become Turkey’s main opposition force in parliament.
Kurdish Minority
22 July: Kurdish race walker Cumali Arslan has accused the Turkish Athletics Federation of excluding him from an international competition because of his ethnic identity and display of the Kurdistan Region flag, allegations the federation denies and European Athletics is reviewing.
Other Minorities
23 July: Turkey’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that the state failed to effectively investigate the 1993 Madımak Hotel massacre, in which an Islamist mob killed 35 people during a festival honoring an Alevi poet, finding a violation of the procedural right to life and ordering compensation for the victims’ relatives.
Refugees and Migrants
21 July: Human Rights Watch urged Turkey to intensify its investigation and disclose the whereabouts of Turkmen activists Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov, who disappeared after release documents were issued in July 2025 despite a Constitutional Court order temporarily blocking their deportation.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
23 July: A court statement made public seven years after it was submitted alleges that Turkish police tortured and threatened Melek Tekin, a mother later sentenced to six years and three months in prison over alleged Gülen movement links, including claims based on ByLock use and a Bank Asya account.
