Osman Hacısalihoğlu, a former police officer who was summarily removed from his job and subsequently served a prison sentence due to conviction of alleged links to the Gülen movement, has died of cancer, human rights activists announced.
Hacısalihoğlu’s dismissal and imprisonment had led to family problems, said Münir Korkmaz, a reporter for KHK TV.
The Turkish government conducted a massive purge in the aftermath of an attempted coup in July 2016, removing more than 100,000 civil servants from their positions and imposing severe restrictions on their access to the job market.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the 2013 corruption investigations, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and 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 the abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
