ARBITRARY DETENTION AND ARREST
Throughout the week, prosecutors ordered the detention of at least 36 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.
25 June: Turkish prosecutors have issued detention warrants for 24 people including active duty and former military officers as well as former military cadets due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement based on payphone call records.
26 June: Ayşe Ercengiz, a former primary school teacher dismissed by a government decree in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt, was arrested on alleged links to the Gülen movement, accompanied in jail by her 20-month-old daughter, who was premature and continues to require medical care and breastfeeding.
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
27 June: News on the tenders received by Atlas İnşaat, founded by Ender Haberdar, from the AKP-affiliated Sancaktepe Municipality were banned from access by the Haymana Criminal Judicature of Peace.
28 June: Following the 2020 Elazığ earthquake, 2,100 news articles and social media posts containing the name of Prof. Dr. Bedri Gencer from Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, who attributed the disasters to "the legalisation of adultery" and "the prohibition of child marriages" were blocked from access by the decision of Akyazı Criminal Judicature of Peace.
29 June: The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) imposed an administrative fine of 189,288 TL and 5 programme suspensions on ‘Açık Radyo’ for the statement "It is the 109th anniversary of the deportations and massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman lands, the massacres that are called genocide. As you know, the commemoration was banned this year".
JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE & RULE OF LAW
25 June: The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that the pretrial detention of 314 people after a failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in July 2016 lacked grounds that could constitute reasonable suspicion.
26 June: The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Turkey’s southeastern Urfa province has accepted yet another criminal complaint against Emine Şenyaşar, who has been targeted by the government for her protest demanding justice for her family members murdered by the bodyguards of an AKP deputy.
KURDISH MINORITY
24 June: Nine co-mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) have been banned from leaving Turkey without the issuance of court orders.
25 June: A Kurdish man who questioned voters who were allegedly “transferred” to his city of residence in the southeastern province of Şırnak on the day of the March 31 local elections in order to change the election results in favor of the ruling party has been indicted.
25 June: A Turkish court began to hear the trial of five former lawmakers from a pro-Kurdish party over their alleged role in violent protests that erupted in southeastern Turkey over a siege of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2014.
26 June: Following a peaceful protest in Mersin, a person named Munzur Can Erdoğan (21, m) was intercepted by unidentified persons, subjected to racist and discriminatory threats and physical violence.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
25 June: Two Kurdish journalists from Iranian Kurdistan are facing imminent deportation from Turkey to Iran, where they fear for their lives.
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
26 June: Turgay Doğan, an ailing inmate at a prison in Turkey’s capital of Ankara, remains incarcerated despite fulfilling parole requirements including completing the minimum required portion of his sentence and being recognized for good behavior.
27 June: According to the annual report of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) covering the period from May 2023 to April 2024, Turkish prisons are beset by persistent issues of torture, overcrowding and discriminatory practices.
27 June: A Turkish lawyer in a statement on X has alleged severe police brutality at the Istanbul Police Department’s organized crime unit after attempting to provide legal assistance to his clients.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
24 June: A total of eight women were allegedly killed by their family members within two days.
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