Author: Zaman Australia

A shopper got the shock of his life after discovering a carpet python hanging off a pair of tracksuit bottoms available for sale at Target.

Rhien’s Snake Removals was called to Target at Bribie Island, in the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, on Tuesday afternoon.

‘I received a call this afternoon to Target, where this sneaky little coastal carpet python had found its way into the store and almost gave a customer a heart attack,’ Rhien wrote on Facebook.

Rhien suspects the snake slithered through the back of the store before getting ‘cosy in the men’s nightwear section’.

‘The team at Target were awesome in keeping a watch on the snake and also keeping everyone at a safe distance until I was able to get there to remove him,’ he said.

The snake was then relocated to nearby bushland.

A picture from the retail store showed the snake bundled up on top of the elasticised grey pants.

The extra-large tracksuit bottoms were hung on a rack with varying sizes.

The sighting caught the attention of social media viewers, with some terrified by the unlikely shopping partner.

Wow… Online shopping never looked so good. Argh,’ one person wrote.

‘Shopping can be sooo dangerous,’ another wrote.

A third said: ‘It seems like the snake wants to try on some clothes.’  msn.com/

The Turkish government continued its efforts to criminalize the Kurdish political movement with a view to weakening the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey’s third largest political party according to the results of the 2018 general election.

The party’s charismatic former leader Selahattin Demirtaş remained behind bars on politically motivated charges despite rulings by Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

According to Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, over the last four years the Turkish government distorted and perverted the legal process to serve the political aim of keeping opposition politicians Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ and other former HDP deputies locked up.

According to the Ministry of Interior, Ankara has ousted a total of 151 elected mayors from office on accusations of terrorism in the last six years, almost all from the HDP, replacing them with government-appointed bureaucrats. Speaking during a session of the Turkish Parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee in Ankara, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said during the last two mayoral terms — 2014-2019 and 2019 onwards — 73 of the 151 mayors removed from office were sentenced to a total of 778 years in prison.

State-appointed trustees now administer nearly all towns and cities in southeastern Turkey.

Here is some of the most important news from 2020 about the ongoing crackdown on the Kurdish political movement:

European Court of Human Rights calls for immediate release of Kurdish leader Demirtaş, Erdoğan remains defiant

Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled in June that the lengthy imprisonment of former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been behind bars on politically motivated charges since November 2016, violated his rights, but he remained in prison due to a separate case.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on December 22 called for the immediate release of Demirtaş, finding Turkey guilty of violating his rights on five accounts. The Grand Chamber said his pre-trial detention since November 2016 had sent “a dangerous message to the entire population” that sharply narrowed free democratic debate.

Yet, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sounded defiant. Speaking to his ruling party lawmakers, Erdoğan slammed the ECtHR for “defending a terrorist” who was responsible for dozens of deaths during violent protests five years ago. More..

Using genocidal language, Erdoğan ally defines Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party as ‘poisonous vermin,’ calls for its closure

Using genocidal language, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and a key ally of President Erdoğan, defined the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as “poisonous vermin” in December and called for its closure on ground of separatism. More..

Kurdish politician ousted from parliament sentenced to 22 years in prison

A high criminal court in southeastern Turkey has handed down a jail sentence of 22 years, three months on terrorism charges to Leyla Güven, who was ousted from the Turkish Parliament in June. Güven stood trial due to her statements critical of a Turkish military operation in the Afrin region of Syria. More..

Turkey has removed 151 mayors on ‘terror charges’ since 2014: Interior Ministry

Ankara has ousted 151 mayors from office on accusations of terrorism in the last six years, replacing them with government-appointed bureaucrats, according to Turkey’s Interior Ministry.

Almost all the ousted mayors are from the HDP, which Ankara accuses of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed secessionist Kurdish group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey. More..

Ankara orders detention of 82 Kurdish politicians over protests against alleged Turkish support for ISIL

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the detention of 82 prominent pro-Kurdish politicians in September. The detention warrants were issued over the politicians’ alleged role in protests in Kurdish majority cities against what is seen by many as the Turkish government’s tacit approval of the Kobane siege in 2014, when Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants laid a prolonged siege to a Kurdish town in northern Syria. More..

Ousted Kurdish mayor attacked by police dogs, tortured in home for hours

Ousted co-mayor of Van’s Edremit Municipality Rojbin Çetin was attacked by police dogs and tortured in her home in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır during a police raid on June 26, deputy chair of the HDP parliamentary group Meral Danış Beştaş said at a press conference. More..

Kurdish politician sentenced to prison for calling President Erdoğan a misogynist

Sebahat Tuncel, a former Kurdish parliamentarian jailed in on terrorism charges, has been handed down an additional prison sentence for insulting President Tayyip Erdoğan. Tuncel was protesting the appointment of a trustee to replace a mayor in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and the arrest of Co-mayors Gülten Kışanak and Fırat Anlı in October 2016. More..

Pro-Kurdish party discovers wiretapping devices in İstanbul headquarters

Saruhan Oluç, deputy chairman of the HDP parliamentary group, said at a press conference in December that four listening devices were found in the HDP’s İstanbul headquarters. More..

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party members subjected to police violence during house raid

Meryem Aşkara, a member of the HDP, claimed she was beaten and threatened by special forces police who raided her house in southeastern Şırnak province. More..

Diyarbakır provincial co-chairs of pro-Kurdish HDP arrested

Zeyyat Ceylan and Hülya Alökmen Uyanık, the Diyarbakır provincial co-chairs of the HDP, were arrested in October on the charge of membership in an armed terrorist organization. More..

The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) announced on Monday that it has joined the Alliance Against Genocide, an international coalition dedicated to creating the international institutions and the political will to prevent genocide.

Founded by Genocide Watch in 1999, the Alliance is made up of over 80 organizations from more than 30 countries around the world. It is the first coalition of organizations focused completely on preventing genocide. Through its member organizations, the Alliance aims to create an early warning network to provide warnings of genocidal processes to governments, journalists, relief and health workers, religious leaders, whistleblowers and ordinary citizens. It aims to create a public, open-source intelligence network that will warn of ethnic and other conflict before it turns into genocide.

“SCF’s inclusion in this prestigious alliance will expand our efforts to shed light on grave human rights violations committed by the Erdoğan government in Turkey and abroad,” the SCF executive board said. “Based on the ten stages of genocide model developed by distinguished scholar and chairman of Genocide Watch Dr. Gregory Stanton, more than one community in Turkey is going through stage 8, persecution. We think there is a real risk that Erdoğan might proceed to the next stage, extermination, if and when conditions are ripe.”

The Alliance members commit to working towards achieving four goals: the provision of public information on the nature of genocide and creation of the political will to prevent and stop it; the creation of effective early-warning systems to alert the world about potential ethnic conflict and genocide; motivating international, regional, and national action to stop genocidal processes; and the arrest, trial and punishment of those who commit genocide, including the effective functioning of the International Criminal Court, the use of national courts with universal jurisdiction and the creation of special courts to prosecute perpetrators of genocide.

“The Alliance Against Genocide welcomes the Stockholm Center for Freedom as a member,” Dr. Gregory Stanton said. “The Stockholm Center has become the most authoritative source of warnings of events in Turkey that indicate genocidal processes. We look forward to leadership by the SCF in the Alliance’s efforts to prevent more genocides perpetrated by the Erdoğan government.”

SCF will continue to establish strategic partnerships to give voice to victims of human rights violations in Turkey and around the world.

About the Stockholm Center for Freedom

A Swedish-based, non-profit advocacy organization, SCF promotes the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights and freedoms with a special focus on Turkey.

SCF is committed to serving as a reference source by providing a broad perspective on rights violations in Turkey, monitoring daily developments through the lens of fact-based investigative journalism and documenting individual cases of infringement of fundamental rights and liberties.

Fatma Görmez, 43, a former teacher fired from her job by an emergency decree-law who passed away yesterday from multiple health problems, was hurriedly buried without giving her jailed husband the opportunity to attend her funeral, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.

In a tweet Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights activist and lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said Görmez was buried before the scheduled time, due to COVID-19 measures, despite not having contracted the virus. As a result her husband was unable to attend the funeral.

Fatma Görmez Konya’da toprağa verildi

Cenazeyi Covid bahanesiyle ilan edilen ikindiden önce toprağa vermişler!

Fatma hanım Covid değildi!

Anlaşılan cenazeye kimsenin katılmasını istememişler

Dirisine de ölüsüne de kimse yetişmesin istemişler!

Eşini de c.evinden getirmemişler pic.twitter.com/hVdN6voE4G

— Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu (@gergerliogluof) January 12, 2021

“Fatma was not a COVID patient. Apparently they didn’t want anyone to attend the funeral,” Gergerlioğlu said.

According to Bold Medya, Görmez had undergone a kidney transplant and two heart surgeries and had lost considerable weight, dropping to 29 kilos before she died. She was in intensive care in the final days of her life.

Görmez was an experienced primary school teacher who was summarily dismissed from her job and briefly detained over her alleged ties to the Gülen movement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 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. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding.

Fatma Görmez’s husband, Bekir Görmez, was arrested immediately after the coup attempt for alleged membership in the Gülen movement and has been in prison ever since. He worked for the Konya-based Mevlana University, one of 15 universities shut down by the Turkish government without any due process after the abortive putsch.

The couple’s son, Berk, succumbed to cancer in January 2018, and his father was only able to attend the funeral in handcuffs, surrounded by gendarmes. Images from the funeral were widely circulated on social media and caused an outcry from rights activists.

After her husband was arrested, Fatma Görmez had to take care of her sick son alone. She had applied for disability, but her application was rejected by the authorities because she had been purged by a government decree. The authorities did not take into account a medical report stating that she was almost totally disabled and not fit to work.

Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 20,610 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.

Former public servants were not only fired from their jobs; they were also banned from working again in the public sector and getting a passport. The government also made it difficult for them to work formally in the private sector. Notes were put on the social security database about dismissed public servants to deter potential employers.

Görmez had shared a video on Twitter in July 2019 in which she said she was struggling under the pressure of her health problems and the loss of her child. “I have a 14-year-old daughter, and all I want is for my husband to be released and take care of her while I’m in the hospital,” she had said.

Görmez’s death caused an outcry among various segments of Turkish society. Prominent journalist Amberin Zaman in a tweet criticized the silence of the Turkish public about the human rights abuses faced by anyone with alleged ties to the Gülen movement.

Gülen cemaatiyle en ufak bağı olan herkesin tabiri caizse haşere muamelesine tabii tutulması ve bir çok “liberal” dahil toplumun genelinin bu durum karşısındaki suskunluğu üzerimizde biriken günahlar silsilesinin karanlık bir kilometre taşı olarak tarihte yerini alacaktır https://t.co/xF5R87M7NL

— Amberin Zaman (@amberinzaman) January 12, 2021

“The treatment of anyone with the slightest tie to the Gülen movement as if they were an insect and the silence of the general public [against this], including many ‘liberals,’ will go down in history as a dark milestone in the many sins that have been accumulating,” Zaman’s tweet reads.

Fatma Görmez.Geçen yıl evine 3 kez gitmiştim hatırlarsınız.Aslında Konya Başkent hastanesine yatırılışından sonra iyi olmuştu.Ama küçük çocuğunu kaybetmiş olması onda büyük sancıydı.Sevenlerinin başı sağolsun.Kızı tek kaldı ama bizler onun için elimizden geleni yapacağız. pic.twitter.com/MXGaTvyLXg

— Haluk Levent (@haluklevent) January 11, 2021

Famous rock star and philanthropist Haluk Levent also shared a condolence message from his Twitter account.Levent said, “Her daughter was left behind all alone, but we will do all that we can to help her.”

turkishminute

Russian Federation (RF) Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov recently stated that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was expected to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to be convened from Thursday to Saturday, and along the lines of which it seems there will be a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Iravunk (Right) newspaper.“ as of yesterday, Yerevan had not yet announced that Pashinyan will leave for RF.“Conversations spread that [Azerbaijan President Ilham] Aliyev also will be in Saint Petersburg. And that put a start to other types of conversations that not only a Putin-Pashinyan [meeting] should now be awaited, but the Aliyev-Pashinyan meeting will follow it. And according to another hypothesis, it can also be with a trilateral format: Putin-Aliyev-Pashinyan,” Iravunk wrote.

The Turkish government continued to muzzle the press in 2020 in a variety of ways, including imprisoning journalists, eliminating media outlets, overseeing the purchase of media brands by pro-government conglomerates and using regulatory authorities to exert financial pressure.

Journalism is still associated with terrorism in Turkey, and journalistic work is used as evidence against journalists in the overwhelming majority of convictions. In most of the trials, the evidence is typically made up of social media posts, news stories, articles and TV broadcasts. According to the Stockholm Center for Freedom’s “Jailed and Wanted Journalists in Turkey” database, 175 journalists are behind bars and 167 are wanted and either in exile or at large. Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) describes Turkey as “the world’s biggest jailer of professional journalists.”

Yet, according to a report by the Center for American Progress (CAP), despite heavy censorship, two key trends undercut President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s efforts to control the media landscape: “rising distrust toward the media and increasing fragmentation in the ways that Turks get their news.”

Cognizant of these trends, the Turkish government passed a Social Media Law, which came into force on October 1, that poses an immediate threat of extensive censorship of the Internet. This is particularly worrisome for — following the state-led takeover of the mainstream media –- social media platforms as well as online news sites, which remain among the last bastions of critical journalism in Turkey.

Even before the new law went into effect, Turkish police investigated 14,186 social media accounts in the first seven months of 2020, taking legal action against 6,743 of them on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda, inciting the public to hatred and enmity, instilling fear in and causing panic among the public or containing provocative content.

Here is some of the most important news from 2020 in the field of press freedom:

Jailed journalists die of cancer after belated release from prison

Journalist Mevlüt Öztaş, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer while in jail, died in July after his belated release from prison despite a medical report recommending it.

TV director Fatih Terzioğlu, 40, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer during his 21-month incarceration on terrorism charges, died in August following his release from prison in mid-July after an intensive social media campaign. More..

Turkish courts consider publishing leaked state documents an act of terrorism, sentence journalist Mehmet Baransu to a total of 36 years

A Mersin court that handed down a prison sentence of 19 years, six months to jailed investigative journalist Mehmet Baransu on three separate charges said in its reasoned decision that he had published classified information with “terror motives” and not for purposes of journalism.

Baransu was also sentenced to an additional 17 years by an İstanbul court in November for publishing leaked government documents. More..

European rights court rules Turkey violated rights of Turkish journalists

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Turkey violated the right to liberty and security as well as the right to freedom of expression of journalist Ahmet Şık, who was kept in pre-trial detention for 14 months in Turkey.

The ECtHR made a similar ruling about a group of journalists and executives from the anti-government Cumhuriyet daily who stood trial on terrorism charges in the country. More..

Turkey fines social media giants for refusal to comply with controversial law

Turkey imposed a first round of fines, TL 30 million ($3.8 million) each, on social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for failing to comply with a new law. On November 4, the companies were slapped with a second round of fines of TL 10 million ($1.17 million) for the same reason. More…

News outlets critical of the government slapped with high and disproportionate fines

Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), imposed fines on TV stations critical of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) totaling 25 times the amount it imposed on pro-government TV stations in 2020. RTÜK had received 102,500 complaints about the staunchly pro-government ATV in 2020; however, ATV was punished only twice, once with an administrative fine for violating laws protecting the family, and again as a warning for the inappropriate use of Turkish, the mildest form of RTÜK sanctions. In addition, RTÜK failed to process any of the complaints filed against pro-government TV stations A Haber, Kanal 7, TV Net and TGRT News in 2020 and did not impose any fines on them. More…

Turkish writer Ahmet Altan held in prison for over 1,500 days without a shred of credible evidence

The Turkish government has held novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan in İstanbul’s Silivri Prison for 1,500 days without a shred of credible evidence that he has committed any crime other than to express critical opinions, Emma Sinclair-Webb from Human Rights Watch said.

Altan topped the December ranking of the One Free Press Coalition’s “10 Most Urgent” list of press freedom cases, the organization announced in a press release. More..

Exiled journalist Can Dündar’s assets seized, gets 27 years in prison

Exiled journalist Can Dündar was handed down a 27-year, six-month prison sentence in a trial concerning a news report on National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks transporting arms to rebels in Syria.

The Özgürüz website, which is run by Dündar, was cut from access in Turkey by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). A Turkish court also ruled to seized Dündar’s assets and declared him a fugitive in October. More…

Appeals court upholds life sentences for 4 defendants including journalist Karaca, former MP İşbilen

A regional court of appeals in Ankara has ruled to uphold the aggravated life sentences of four defendants — journalist Hidayet Karaca, former lawmaker İlhan İşbilen, Fethullah Gülen’s cousin Kazım Avcı and Alaeddin Kaya, former owner of the Zaman newspaper. More…

4 journalists arrested for reporting on Kurdish villagers allegedly thrown from military helicopter

Four journalists who reported on two Kurdish villagers who had allegedly been thrown out of a military helicopter were arrested in October. The villagers were in fact assaulted by a mob of more than 100 soldiers, a report by independent deputy and investigative journalist Ahmet Şık had later revealed. More..

Journalists convicted over reports on Turkish black op in Libya

A Turkish court in September convicted five journalists over their reports on a Turkish intelligence officer killed in Libya and sentenced them to more than three years in prison but released them pending appeal. More..

Exiled Turkish journalist attacked in Stockholm suburb

Sweden-based Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt was attacked yesterday near his home in Stockholm, hospitalizing him for injuries sustained. Bozkurt and his team of journalists in Sweden run Nordic Monitor news web site which provides exclusive and critical coverage on Turkey and exposes the clandestine activities of the notorious Turkish intelligence agency. More..

İstanbul court upholds prison sentences of journalists from Turkey’s pro-opposition Sözcü daily

The prison sentences of nine journalists from Turkey’s pro-opposition Sözcü daily who were charged with supporting the Gülen movement have been upheld by the İstanbul Regional Appeals Court. More..

Journalist Büşra Erdal denied release despite eligibility for parole

Journalist Büşra Erdal has been denied release from prison although she has been eligible for parole since March 30, according to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights activist and a deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). More..

Turkish TV station closes down due to gov’t pressure 26 days after launch

Private Turkish television station Olay TV closed down on December 25, only 26 days after it started broadcasting, due to intense pressure from Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. More..

Female journalists in Turkey face discrimination and harassment at work, says media association

Female journalists in Turkey face problems at work, ranging from unequal pay to sexual harassment, most frequently seen in local media outlets, according to a report by the Media Research Association (MEDAR). More..

Turkish gov’t uses TRT as a weapon to spread its censorship to YouTube

After taking full control of traditional media, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began silencing dissenting voices on YouTube through Turkey’s public broadcaster TRT, which abused the platform’s community guidelines and copyright policy to secure the closure of dozens of channels and the removal of thousands of videos. More..

Germany has designated Turkey’s pro-government think-tank, the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) as a front organisation that promotes Ankara’s views under the name of science and research in Europe, DW Turkish reported on Friday.

In response to a parliamentary question from the Free Democrat Party (FDP) regarding Turkey’s intelligence and lobbying activities, the German federal government said SETA seeks to influence public opinion and shape the political debate in European through its activities and publications.

The German government said a SETA report published in 2019 served to pressure the Turkish government’s opponents, DW added.

A 2019 SETA report titled: “The Turkey extensions of international media organisations,” included detailed information on journalists at foreign news outlets in Turkey, complete with past employment and social media posts.

The report analysed foreign news outlets’ coverage of the July 2016 coup attempt and the Turkish government’s subsequent crackdown, as well as Turkey’s cross-border operations in neighbouring Syria and elsewhere, linking perceived falsehoods to the journalists’ personal histories and alleged biases.

Both Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have sought to expand their activities in Germany after the failed coup, with the Islamist and nationalist groups close to the AKP trying to increase their impact within the public sphere, the German government said, according to DW.

The German government added that such groups are seeeking to enter German politics by nominating candidates in local elections. SETA opened a representative office in Berlin in 2017, and the religious-nationalist movement Milli Görüş (National Vision) was indirectly represented in the German Islam Conference through the Islamic Council Association, DW said.

Berlin also expressed concerns over the activities of the Grey Wolves, a ultranationalist movement linked to the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in Turkey, DW said.

In November, the German parliament passed a motion calling for the the Grey Wolves to be banned following a similar move in France. But DW said the German interior ministry had decided not to act on the issue at this stage, pointing to legal obstacles involved in banning associations.

In answering a previous parliamentary question on SETA’s activities and financial resources in 2019, the German government described the the think-tank as a pro-Turkish government organisation financed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law, former Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak’s family.

The FDP parliamentary group’s deputy chairman Stephan Thomae said the German government had reached the end of its patience with Turkey’s efforts to establish diplomatic influence in Germany and was gradually abandoning the cautious approach taken in the past, according to DW.

SETA foundation also has a representative office in Washington D.C.

Writing on social media, Sinan Ciddi, associate professor of national security studies at the Marine Corps University in Virginia, said U.S. authorities should follow the German example with SETA’s Washington counterpart.

The German govt has designated Turkish organization, SETA, as a ‘front’, disseminating pro-Erdogan propaganda. US authorities should follow suit with its Washington counterpart, @SETADC. This propaganda shop has long been the main beacon of Erdoganism in the US. https://t.co/SA3c26XhjW

— Sinan Ciddi (he/him) (@SinanCiddi) January 9, 2021

Nusret Muğla, 84, who suffers from multiple health problems, was arrested on Wednesday after the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a previous conviction that was based on politically motivated charges, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported citing Bold Medya.

Speaking to Bold Medya immediately before his arrest, Muğla said he had heart disease, high blood pressure, prostate cancer and renal and balance problems. He said he took 14 different medications every day and could barely walk. According to Muğla, his son took care of his daily needs as he was unable to leave the house.

Muğla was arrested in October 2016 for alleged membership to the Gülen movement and underwent an angiography during his time in jail. He was released for health reasons seven months later but was subsequently sentenced to six years, three months in prison.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 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. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding.

According to a statement from Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on November 26, a total of 292,000 people have been detained while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the failed coup. The minister said there are currently 25,655 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed due to links to the Gülen movement.

The purge has resulted in a drastic increase of political prisoners in Turkish prisons, some of whom are severely ill.

According to the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are more than 1,605 sick prisoners in Turkish prisons, approximately 604 of whom are critically ill. Although most of the seriously ill patients have forensic and medical reports deeming them unfit to remain in prison, they are not released. Authorities refuse to release them on the grounds that they pose a potential danger to society. In the first eight months of 2020, five critically ill prisoners passed away because they were not released in time to receive proper medical treatment.

Since April 2020, four seriously ill prisoners over the age of 70 have died in penal institutions; five inmates suffering from cancer died shortly after they were released; and 16 died of chronic illnesses while imprisoned.

Journalist Şahin Alpay’s ongoing house arrest continues to violate his right to liberty and security, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday, Turkish media reported.

The court said Alpay’s release from prison only to be put under house arrest was a gross violation of his liberties. It said house arrest requires the precondition of a strong sign of criminal activity, which was not met in Alpay’s case and that he should be paid TL 20,000 ($2,700) in non-pecuniary damages.

Alpay, a veteran journalist and columnist for the now-closed Zaman and Today’s Zaman dailies, was jailed in the aftermath of a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, over his alleged links to the Gülen movement and on allegations of “attempting to overthrow the government.”

On January 11, 2018 the Constitutional Court had ruled that Alpay’s pre-trial detention violated his rights to liberty and security, freedom of expression and freedom of the press and ordered the trial court to put an end to the violations cited.

However, both the trial court and a court of first instance authorized to review the objections rejected numerous petitions filed by Alpay’s lawyers requesting his release in accordance with the Constitutional Court judgment. Upon the trial court’s failure to implement the high court judgment, Alpay’s lawyers lodged a new application with the Constitutional Court.

On March 16, 2018 the Constitutional Court ruled that the trial court’s failure to implement its earlier judgment violated Alpay’s right to liberty and security under Article 19 of the Constitution and ordered Alpay’s immediate release. Based on the Constitutional Court’s second judgment, the trial court ruled for Alpay’s release from prison but ordered that he be placed under house arrest. Alpay was released from Silivri Prison in the early hours of March 17, 2018.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced on March 20, 2018  that Alpay’s arrest was a violation of personal liberty and security under Article 5/1 of the European Convention on Human Rights and of freedom of expression under Article 10.

Alpay was eventually sentenced to eight years, nine months in prison on July 6, 2018 and has remained under house arrest.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 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. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt that he accused Gülen of masterminding.

According to the Stockholm Center for Freedom’s “Jailed and Wanted Journalists in Turkey” database, 175 journalists are behind bars and 167 are wanted and either in exile or at large. Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) describes Turkey as “the world’s biggest jailer of professional journalists.”