A 10-year-old girl’s letter describing the impact of losing both parents to prison over alleged links to the Gülen movement has shone a spotlight on the emotional toll Turkey’s post-coup prosecutions are having on children, the TR724 news website reported.
Elif Beyza Gündoğdu wrote the letter on July 3, one day after her mother was arrested in the northwestern city of Edirne. In her handwritten note she describes growing up without her father, who had been imprisoned for nearly six years, and now facing the same separation from her mother.
“I don’t write this to make people feel sorry for me,” she said. “I’m writing to tell what a 10-year-old child has been through.”
She recalled being told that her father was serving in the military and later discovering the truth. “When I found out that military service is only six months, I realized they lied,” she wrote. “When I went to see my father in prison, I would always dress up. But looking at those photos from the visits would make me very sad.”
“Now, they want me to go through the same pain again — this time without my mother.” Elif also wrote about feeling isolated at school and giving up things she loved. “During those seven years, I stopped doing many things I liked,” she said. “Now they want me to do it again. That’s too much for a child.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations revealed in 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as some of his family members 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 the 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.
Deniz Gündoğdu, Elif’s mother, and her 16-month-old daughter were on their way to Greece to seek asylum in Europe when they were arrested by Turkish police on July 2 and are now held in Edirne L-Type Prison.
Under Law No. 5275, children up to age six stay with incarcerated mothers when no other caregiver is available, but the same legislation lets courts postpone a woman’s sentence if she has given birth within the previous 18 months. Rights groups say such postponements are rarely granted.
Gündoğdu had previously been sentenced to six years, three months over alleged links to the movement, but Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the verdict last month and ordered a retrial.
Fearing a fresh conviction, Gündoğdu tried to leave Turkey with her youngest daughter.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
Her father, Vahit Murat Gündoğdu, was previously imprisoned for nearly six years on similar charges before being released in 2023. He was employed by an educational company later placed under state control. “We talked about reaching out to journalists and lawmakers,” he said. “Elif went to her room and wrote the letter herself.”
Rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the detention of parents on broad anti-terror charges in Turkey, particularly when it results in the separation of families. According to advocacy organizations, hundreds of children have spent time in prison with their mothers since a 2016 coup attempt, often in facilities unequipped for child welfare.
As for Elif, she remains with her father, adjusting once again to life with one parent missing. “She’s only 10,” he said. “But she’s had to grow up fast.”
