Nearly 99 percent of civil servants dismissed by emergency decrees after a coup attempt in Turkey in 2016 say they were denied the right to a fair trial, according to a survey conducted by MAK Consulting, a polling company widely viewed as being close to the government, Turkish Minute reported, citing the TR724 news website.
The survey, carried out November 15–20, 2025, on 6,500 people who identified themselves as purge victims or immediate relatives, found that 98.8 percent said they had no access to a defense or fair-trial rights.
Ninety-nine percent said the State of Emergency Inquiry Commission, created to review appeals, failed to carry out its mandate. The findings reflect only the views of those who consider themselves directly affected by the decrees, not the broader public. The purge mostly targeted alleged members of the faith-based Gülen movement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The movement’s followers say they have been unfairly targeted in a campaign of political persecution aimed at silencing dissent and consolidating power. The post-coup purge has seen hundreds of thousands investigated and tens of thousands imprisoned on terrorism-related charges widely viewed as politically motivated.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency that remained in effect until July 19, 2018. During this period, the government carried out a purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight by issuing a number of government decrees. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as more than 24,000 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have long argued that the decrees lacked individualized evidence and violated basic standards of due process.
A study titled “Perspectives of Those Who Declare Themselves Victims of Emergency Decrees” used a hybrid method combining the survey data with face-to-face interviews conducted with about 1 percent of participants. Researchers said the findings reflect personal perceptions rather than legal assessments.
A large majority expressed mistrust in the process. A total of 91.4 percent said the decrees were unnecessary, while 88.7 percent believed innocent people were dismissed along with those accused of ties to the coup. Nearly 67 percent said their dismissals were based on false accusations or personal vendettas rather than evidence. The survey also found that many participants believed the decrees violated the legal principle of individual criminal responsibility, a concern echoed in reports by international observers.
MAK Consulting Chairman Mehmet Ali Kulat said the plight of purge victims is among Turkey’s most urgent national issues. “This is a problem we must solve. It has grown so large that it is now beyond politics,” he wrote on X, calling for broad legal reforms.
Respondents reported extensive social and economic harm. Fully 91.8 percent said their children faced discrimination at school or work, while 81.7 percent said they were ostracized by friends or neighbors. Two-thirds said they needed psychological support.
Dismissed public servants were not only removed from their jobs but also banned from returning to the public sector and faced strict passport restrictions. A total of 87.2 percent said they experienced discrimination in the private sector, while 98.2 percent said employment bans amounted to a violation of basic rights. Many described these measures as a form of “civil death,” a term used by legal scholars to describe long-term social exclusion.
Nearly all respondents — 99.1 percent — rejected the government’s national security justification for the purges, saying their return to work would pose no threat. The same share said the decrees damaged Turkey’s global credibility on democracy and the rule of law. Turkish officials have repeatedly defended the decrees as necessary to protect state institutions from infiltration.
When asked about solutions, 92.9 percent supported a new law or amnesty and said reinstatement should include both returning to work and full legal exoneration. A total of 79.3 percent said reinstatement should come through court rulings rather than political decisions.
Only 21.2 percent believed the issue could be resolved within three years, and just 38.2 percent expected a future government to prioritize purge victims after the next election.
