Şuayip Özdoğan, a 47-year-old man who fled persecution in Turkey, died on Friday in Germany after suffering a heart attack, the Bold Medya news website reported on Sunday.
According to information circulating on social media, Özdoğan was arrested due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement after a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The exact accusations against him have not been disclosed by the media.
In an attempt to escape government persecution, Özdoğan crossed the Evros River into Greece in 2018 with a group of 15 others and later made his way to Germany. His friends and acquaintances expressed deep sorrow after learning of his passing on social media, saying he was a good person with exemplary behavior. Özdoğan is survived by his wife and three children.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 2013, 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 July 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 have been jailed since the coup attempt, scores of people have fled Turkey due to a massive purge carried out by the Turkish government against alleged members of the movement. Many have tried to illegally flee Turkey as the government had canceled the passports of thousands of people.
