A Turkish asylum seeker, currently living in the Netherlands, described the journey to safety after Turkey’s post-coup purge as perilous, fraught with deadly risks, and marked by loss of life in an interview with the TR724 media outlet on YouTube.
Hatice Aksoy, a former teacher, said she lost her sister-in-law, and toddler nephew while they attempted to cross the Maritsa River, a natural border between Turkey and Greece.
The family was fleeing the persecution and mass arrests that had gripped the country following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Aksoy’s brother, Hasan Aksoy, a literature teacher, was dismissed from his job by a government decree over alleged links to the faith based Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt.
Aksoy herself was an English teacher in West Africa, working for a school that was linked to the movement. She too, could not return to Turkey after 2016.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since corruption investigations revealed in December 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan 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 designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Stripped of his position and under the fear of being arrested, he made the decision in 2018 to escape Turkey with his wife and three-year-old son. Like thousands of others, they turned to the Maritsa River, known as Meriç in Turkish, a frequently used but treacherous crossing into Greece.
“They couldn’t stay,” Aksoy said. “They were hiding. My nephew couldn’t even run around the house without fear of being heard [by the neighbours, who could turn them into the police].”
Aksoy said she vividly remembered the last message from her brother on July 28, 2018: “We’re leaving now. Pray for us.”
Hasan Aksoy attempted to cross from Turkey to Greece with his wife, Sena, and their son, Yusuf Baha. Their overloaded inflatable boat sank in the fast-moving waters of the Maritsa River, claiming the lives of Sena and Yusuf.
“My brother survived, but part of him died that night,” Aksoy said, recalling video footage of Hasan Aksoy wrapped in a blanket, sobbing inconsolably as Turkish police interrogated him immediately after his rescue.
The grieving father was arrested and spent nearly seven years in prison, unable even to attend the funerals of his wife and child. Upon release, he returned to an empty home filled with painful memories.
“My brother was a beloved teacher, dedicated to literature and his students,” Aksoy said. “Now, he’s left with nothing. No family, no home, and no country.”
The Aksoys’ ordeal reflects the plight of thousands targeted by the Turkish government in its sweeping crackdown on perceived Gülen supporters. Human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands have fled Turkey since 2016, seeking asylum in Europe and elsewhere, often via dangerous sea and land routes.
“People don’t understand what it’s like when you can’t even open a window out of fear,” Hatice said, recounting her own years of exile and anxiety. “My nephew was only three years old. How could he ever be a threat to anyone?”
Following the failed coup in 2016, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. 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.
Critics accuse Turkey of extensive human rights abuses in the post-coup crackdown, including arbitrary arrests, torture, and forcing innocent families into perilous exile. The Turkish government maintains that its actions are legitimate national security measures.
Despite international condemnation, the human cost continues to mount. Hatice, determined to honor her family’s memory, hopes to rebuild her life in Europe, carrying forward their story.
“We didn’t choose exile,” she said. “It chose us. All we ever wanted was to live freely and with dignity.”
