An ongoing crackdown in Turkey following a failed coup in 2016 has led to more than 126,000 convictions and left over 11,000 people in prison, according to the latest Justice Ministry data cited by the state-run Anadolu news agency on Tuesday, Turkish Minute reported.
The July 15, 2016 coup attempt, during which more than 250 people were killed, was carried out by a faction within the military. The government immediately accused the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating the plot. Gülen, who lived in the United States until his death in October 2024, denied any involvement and repeatedly called for an independent international investigation, a demand that was never met.
Today marks the ninth anniversary of the coup attempt.
Mass convictions and ongoing investigations
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç told Anadolu that since 2016, Turkish courts have convicted 126,796 civilians over alleged ties to the Gülen movement. Some 11,085 people remain imprisoned, either serving upheld sentences or awaiting the outcome of appeals. An additional 555 people are being held in pretrial detention.
Legal proceedings are still underway for more than 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active investigation, nearly a decade after the events of 2016.
In separate trials involving those accused of direct involvement in the coup attempt, the government has concluded 289 proceedings. Of the 4,891 people convicted, 1,634 received aggravated life sentences and 1,366 were sentenced to life in prison. Another 1,891 were given prison terms of varying lengths, while 2,870 were acquitted, Anadolu reported.
Global pursuit of Gülen followers
The crackdown extended beyond Turkey’s borders, with the government seeking the extradition of alleged Gülen movement members from abroad. According to Tunç, Turkey submitted 3,579 INTERPOL Red Notice requests and issued 2,364 extradition requests to 118 countries. Only 131 people have been returned to Turkey, the minister said, three through official extradition and 128 via “unofficial means,” often without legal process.
Since the coup attempt, the Erdoğan government has employed extra-legal methods to secure the return of its critics after its official extradition requests have been denied. The government’s campaign has mostly relied on renditions, in which the government and its intelligence agency MİT persuade the relevant states to hand over individuals without due process.
The victims have been the subjects of a number of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, house raids, torture and ill-treatment during these operations. A detailed account of the Erdoğan government’s transnational repression is documented in a report by the Stockholm Center for Freedom titled “Turkey’s Transnational Repression: Abduction, Rendition and Forcible Return of Erdoğan Critics.”
In several of these cases, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the arrest, detention and forced transfer to Turkey of Turkish nationals were arbitrary and in violation of international human rights norms and standards.
Massive purges in the public sector and the judiciary
Domestically, the government launched massive purges across the public sector. According to the Justice Ministry, more than 127,000 people were dismissed from public service. Fewer than 20,000 have been reinstated through a government-appointed appeals body known as the State of Emergency Procedures Investigation Commission (OHAL Commission).
Dismissed public workers were barred not only from returning to public employment but also effectively blacklisted in the private sector. Many were denied passports and flagged in the country’s social security system, preventing them from securing jobs. Thousands have faced long-term economic hardship and social exclusion without access to legal remedies.
The judiciary also saw sweeping changes, with 4,006 judges and prosecutors dismissed in the aftermath of the coup attempt, reducing judicial staffing from 12,000 to around 8,000. More than half of current judicial personnel now have less than five years of experience, the minister said.
The erosion of the rule of law in Turkey worsened after the failed coup in July 2016, when more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors were removed under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
The purge of judges and prosecutors following the coup attempt is seen by many as one of the main reasons for the erosion in the rule of law in the country, where even the rulings of the European Courts of Human Rights (ECtHR) are disregarded and members of the judiciary are accused of acting on orders from the government.
In a development that confirmed the erosion of the Turkish judiciary, Turkey was ranked 117th out of 142 countries in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index published in October 2024.
Critics have long argued that the crackdown swept up not only coup plotters but also peaceful critics of the government. Turkish authorities have considered a range of lawful activities, including having an account at Bank Asya, using the ByLock encrypted messaging app or subscribing to affiliated newspapers as grounds for terrorism-related charges.
The ECtHR has ruled in several cases that such activities do not amount to criminal conduct under international standards.
According to data from the police’s counterterrorism department, as reported by Anadolu on Monday, a total of 390,354 people have been detained on charges broadly categorized under terrorism or coup-related offenses since the abortive putsch. Of these, 113,837 have been arrested.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly criticized the post-coup crackdown for undermining due process, suppressing dissent and targeting a religious group without credible evidence of wrongdoing.
Despite international criticism, mass detentions, investigations and purges have continued into 2025.
