The International Religious Freedom Roundtable (IRF) on Wednesday urged the US administration to take immediate action in the case of 41 women, including 14 minor girls, prosecuted in Turkey on terrorism charges over routine religious and educational activities.
In a letter signed by 80 organizations and 322 individuals, the IRF urged the State Department and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to call for the complete acquittal of all 41 defendants and to publicly condemn the ongoing persecution and the misuse of counterterrorism laws in Turkey against religious expression.
“This case is not about terrorism,” the letter said. “It is about a government apparatus that has turned religious devotion into a legal liability. The international community must not look away.”
The defendants include high school and university students as well as their mothers, who are on trial in İstanbul for alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement. The indictment cites more than 100 activities — such as Quran study, praying, tutoring, bowling, attending social gatherings and living in shared apartments — as evidence of terrorism. A verdict is expected at the next hearing on Thursday, with each facing up to 15 years in prison.
Many of the defendants were detained in May 2024 during dawn raids. According to reports, they were denied access to lawyers or parents at the time of arrest and were threatened in custody.
Turkish 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 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.
The case has also attracted attention in the US Congress, with Representative Gus Bilirakis of Florida raising it in a floor speech on Monday about the state of religious freedom in Turkey. “Ankara’s violations go far beyond just Christian communities,” Bilirakis said. “Just over the summer, Mr. Speaker, the government authorities in Istanbul arrested 41 Muslim women, including 14 minor girls, solely based on their religious expression.”
