Sultan Çetintaş, who gave birth on Monday to her third child in the Turkish province of İzmir, was detained on Tuesday over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
Çetintaş was taken to the courthouse with her one-day-old baby after undergoing a C-section.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu criticized the detention of the new mother on his social media account and asked Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to end the practice.
“Sultan Çetintaş gave birth yesterday and was detained today, taken to the İzmir courthouse. Stop these inhuman practices,” said Tanrıkulu.
Tanrıkulu said in an another tweet later in the day that Çetintaş was released on judicial probation.
In the meantime, another victim of the witch-hunt, 22-month-old Hüma Sultan, whose mother was arrested on July 19, has to stay in prison with her mother despite a chronic fever.
Sultan’s father was arrested in December 2016.
According to a report prepared by CHP İstanbul deputy Gamze İlgezdi, since a coup attempt last year, 29 pregnant and new mothers have been arrested and more than 560 children have had to stay in prison with their mothers, unable to benefit from legal rights.
More than 17,000 women in Turkey, many with small children, have been jailed in an unprecedented crackdown and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons as part of the government’s systematic campaign of intimidation and persecution of critics and opponents, a report titled “Jailing Women In Turkey: Systematic Campaign of Persecution and Fear” released in April by SCF has revealed.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch AKP government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. (turkishminute.com)
