Turkish police have been waiting inside Kayseri-based Tekden Hospital to detain Zeynep Toptaş, who just gave birth to her child, over alleged links to the Gülen movement, according to media on Sept 3.
According to TR724 online news outlet, Toptaş faces detention immediately after the childbirth, as part of the government’s post-coup crackdown against the movement, which is accused of masterminding the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. The movement denies involvement. TR724 also said Toptaş suffers from chronic anaemia.
This is not the first-time Turkish police were reported to wait in/outside a hospital room to detain a woman who just had a baby as hospitals, hotels as well as state institutions have become common places where suspects are required to check in for registration, involuntarily helping police to locate them.
Havva Hamamcıoğlu, Nazlı Mert, Esra Demir, Aysun Aydemir, Elif Aslaner and Fadime Günay are only some of the women who also faced detention shortly after delivery as part of a post-coup witch-hunt targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement.
More than 17,000 women in Turkey, many with small children, have been jailed in an unprecedented crackdown and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons as part of the government’s systematic campaign of intimidation and persecution of critics and opponents, a new report titled “Jailing Women In Turkey: Systematic Campaign of Persecution and Fear” released in April by SCF has revealed. (turkeypurge.com)
