Derya Gökten, the wife of an arrestee in Bursa prison, was detained along with her 5-month-old son after visiting her husband in jail. According to a Twitter message seeking help from the Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu, the woman visited her husband in the prison and was rounded up by anti-terror police at Bursa airport. The message was sent to the deputy with a picture of Gökten’s son.
“This baby is named Nedim Harun Gökten. He is only 5-month-old. His father has been under arrest in Bursa. His mother Derya Gökten was detained at the airport in Bursa where she came to visit her husband. She was set to depart from Bursa to her hometown Diyarbakır. She was taken under custody at Bursa police’s anti-terror department. Nedim Harun, too, ended up in custody. The reason for why she wanted to go back to Diyarbakır was to attend his father’s funeral. In short, she was prevented from attending the funeral ceremony. And, Nedim Harun remains in a custody cell longing for the sky, the stars and the outside world he has yet to know, instead of getting to the hometown of his grandfather whom he will never meet.”
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 report titled “Jailing Women In Turkey: Systematic Campaign of Persecution and Fear” released in April by SCF has revealed.
Meanwhile, at least 30 people including teachers, businessmen, and public servants in Tekirdağ province were detained over their alleged use of ByLock mobile app on Saturday. Tekirdag public prosecutors has issued detention warrants for 42 people.
Turkish authorities believe using ByLock is a sign of being a follower of the Gülen movement as they see the mobile phone application as the top communication tool among the movement members.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting participants of the Gülen movement in jails.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has announced on July 7, 2017 that at least 50,504 people have been arrested and 168,801 have been the subject of legal proceedings (investigations, detentions etc.) in Turkey in the framework of the Turkish government’s massive post-coup witch hunt campaign targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement since the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Among the detainees are some 560 children aged between 0 to 6. Also, arrest warrants have been issued for 8,069 people, according to Bozdağ. (SCF with turkeypurge.com)
