Category: World

Speaking to reporters at the “Ankara 365 Media Meetings,” Yerlikaya emphasized the scale of the operations against the movement.

The Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding a failed coup in 2016 and is labeled as a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

This week’s arrests and detentions underscored the ongoing crackdown.

On Tuesday arrest warrants were issued by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for eight people allegedly linked to the movement. Five of these suspects have been detained, with police actively pursuing the remaining individuals. The suspects are accused of operating in significant roles within the organization, including “regional student coordinators” and “military personnel handlers.”

Additional operations on the same day in Malatya resulted in the detention of four women allegedly active within the movement, with law enforcement seizing a trove of documents and digital materials.

Detention warrants for eight people were issued on Thursday by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The police detained six of the suspects, who were accused of being affiliated with the movement and allegedly using the ByLock messaging app.

ByLock, once widely available online, has been considered a secret tool of communication among supporters of the Gülen movement since the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, despite the lack of any evidence that ByLock messages were related to the abortive putsch.

Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations in 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 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 were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.

In a statement on X, Minister Tunç emphasized that judges and public prosecutors are required to adhere to judicial ethics and avoid inappropriate behavior in all their activities.

In response to the controversy, Tabur has been relieved of his commission duties, Tunç said.

“In light of the images and allegations that have come to the public’s attention, the HSK has initiated an investigation. Furthermore, Tabur’s authority as the president of the Izmir Judicial Commission has been revoked.”

Tabur, who was born in Elazığ in 1971, has held various judicial positions across Turkey. He was the presiding judge in the trial of Pastor Andrew Brunson, which caused a diplomatic row between Turkey and the United States. Tabur was appointed president of the Izmir Judicial Commission in January 2021 by the HSK.

The BirGün daily on Wednesday published a photograph showing Tabur posing in his office at the İzmir Courthouse in front of a display of 13 handguns and seven long guns. The photo included senior HSK officials during a visit on May 2. Tabur confirmed the weapons were his and said they were all licensed.

BirGün reported that Tabur is known for his luxurious lifestyle and often drives a Porsche Taycan to work and maintains a lavish office. He defended his wealth, stating that he is active in the stock market and has declared his assets to the Ministry of Justice.

“All the weapons are licensed and belong to me. The long guns are licensed hunting rifles,” he said.

However, according to military sources who spoke to Turkish Minute, at least two of the rifles are not hunting rifles but most probably assault rifles. Although there is a possibility that they are airsoft replicas, the claim by the judge saying they are all registered and licensed refutes this possibility, since airsoft replicas do not require the owner to register them.

In Turkey, individuals cannot own assault rifles, and possessing an unlicensed firearm without any other criminal activity carries a three-year prison sentence.

“I have nothing to hide. My office has been visited by the president of the Supreme Court of Appeals and inspectors from the Ministry of Justice, all of whom have expressed their admiration,” Tabur told BirGün.

Addressing questions about his Porsche Taycan, Tabur said, “I trade on the stock market. There is no doubt about the source of my money. I have declared my assets to the Ministry of Justice. Everyone is aware of the timing and method of the car purchase.”

The Turkish judiciary has faced numerous allegations of corruption and political influence, particularly following the 2016 failed coup. Recent developments have seen key judicial figures, such as İstanbul’s former chief public prosecutor İsmail Uçar, make corruption allegations that rocked the legal community. Uçar’s unexpected promotion to the Supreme Court of Appeals has been viewed by some as an attempt to silence him.

Yerlikaya said the detainees included suspects who were involved in the movement’s alleged infiltration of the police and the judiciary as well as people who were determined to have used the ByLock messaging application and were accused of having secretly communicated with their contacts within the movement via pay phones or individuals whose sentences over Gülen links were upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals and were at large.

ByLock, once widely available online, has been considered a secret tool of communication among supporters of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group outlawed by Ankara, since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, despite the lack of any evidence that ByLock messages were related to the abortive putsch.

The so-called “pay phone investigations” are based on call records. The prosecutors assume that a member of the Gülen movement used the same pay phone to call all his contacts consecutively. Based on that assumption, when an alleged member of the movement is found in call records, it is assumed that other numbers called right before or after that call also belong to people with Gülen links.

The minister also said that “large amounts of foreign currency and Turkish lira” as well as a number of digital materials and documents were confiscated in raids conducted in the provinces of Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bursa, Bitlis, Denizli, Edirne, Gaziantep, Giresun, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Kütahya, Malatya, Şanlıurfa and Tekirdağ.

The Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding the failed coup and is labeled a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement 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. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following the abortive putsch in 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 were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.

Turkish authorities routinely rely on witness statements as evidence to identify and prosecute members of the group.

The defendants in the trials against the movement are often encouraged to benefit from the country’s repentance laws allowing for reduced penalties in exchange for denouncing other members of the group.

In recent years, there have also been many reports about the alleged use of torture and ill-treatment in custody to coerce detainees into becoming informants and incriminating others.

Demirtaş has been jailed since November 2016 on bogus terrorism-related charges and not released from prison despite rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.

Kılıçdaroğlu made the comments after visiting Demirtaş, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, the former mayor of Diyarbakır, in prison.

An Ankara court recently sentenced 24 HDP politicians, among them Demirtaş, for their alleged roles in deadly protests in 2014 to prison terms ranging from nine to 42 years, while acquitting 12 other politicians who had stood trial with them.

The trial, which lasted nearly three years, centered on the events of October 6-8, 2014, when ISIL laid siege to Kobani. Protests erupted across Turkey, particularly in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, resulting in 37 deaths. There were 108 defendants in the trial including former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

The Turkish government accused the HDP leaders of inciting the violence, while the defendants maintained that their calls for solidarity with Kobani were within the bounds of freedom of expression.

“Mr. Demirtaş is a pioneer of civil politics,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “He wants everyone in Turkey to live in peace and happiness. I don’t find it right that he is in prison.”

Kılıçdaroğlu stressed the importance of freedom of expression and opposed imprisonment for political thought. He also highlighted the need for a new political discourse in Turkey that would allow all citizens to express their views freely and live in peace.

In 2016 the CHP, led by Kılıçdaroğlu, supported a bill to remove parliamentary immunity, allowing the arrest of several HDP deputies, including former co-chair Demirtaş.

Critics have long accused the CHP of politicizing within the red lines set by President Erdoğan and not putting up strong resistance that could challenge the president’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

They claim that the CHP does not oppose the AKP’s policies when it comes to groups systematically targeted by the state apparatus, such as Kurds.

Kılıçdaroğlu said the issue of his 2016 decision did not come up during the visit.

The visit also touched on the broader issues in Turkish politics, including concerns about the exodus of young people from the country and the need for democratization. Kılıçdaroğlu argued that as long as authoritarian structures persist, normalization in Turkey cannot occur.

“If Mr. Demirtaş were outside, civil politics would advance significantly, and I am sure terrorist incidents would end,” Kılıçdaroğlu added. “That’s why I believe it’s wrong for him to be in prison.”

Kurdish politicians who have been under intense pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration. Following the failure of peace talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2015, the government adopted a more nationalist and anti-Kurdish stance.

Israel said it was looking into the “grave and awful” impact on civilians after the latest mass casualty event during its military campaign, which has continued since October 7.

The army said Sunday evening’s attack in the southern Rafah area had targeted and killed two senior Hamas operatives.

The UN called on Israel to conduct a “thorough and transparent” investigation into the Rafah strike, as the Israeli military said it was launching a probe into civilian deaths.

“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “horrified by news coming out of Rafah on Israeli strikes killing dozens of displaced persons, including small children. I condemn this in the strongest terms.”

“We’re looking into this,” Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman told a media briefing.

Israel’s army said its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound in Rafah” and killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the militant group in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said the strike set off a fire that tore through a displacement center in northwestern Rafah near a facility of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.

“We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs. … We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly,” said agency official Mohammad al-Mughayyir.

“We had just done with the evening prayers,” recalled one survivor, a woman who declined to be named. “Our children were asleep.

“Suddenly we heard a loud sound and there was fire all around us. The children were screaming.”

Footage from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society showed chaotic nighttime scenes of paramedics racing to the fiery attack site and evacuating the wounded, including children.

The ICRC said one of its field hospitals was receiving an “influx of casualties seeking care for injuries and burns” and that its teams were “doing their best to save lives.”

Mughayyir said the rescue efforts were hampered by war damage and the impacts of Israel’s siege.

“There is a fuel shortage … there are roads that have been destroyed, which hinders the movement of civil defense vehicles in these targeted areas,” he said.

“There is also a shortage of water to extinguish fires.”

Across the region the Israeli attack sparked strong protests from mediators Egypt and Qatar as well as from Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Egypt deplored the “targeting of defenseless civilians” and labeled it part of “a systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitable.”

Jordan accused Israel of “ongoing war crimes,” and Saudi Arabia condemned “in the strongest terms the continued massacres committed by Israeli occupation forces.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable.”

Qatar condemned the Israeli bombing as a “dangerous violation of international law” and voiced “concern that the bombing will complicate ongoing mediation efforts and hinder reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”

African Union chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also condemned the attack on X, saying, “Israel continues to violate international law with impunity and in contempt of an ICJ ruling two days ago ordering an end to its military action in Rafah.”

The top world court, the International Court of Justice, on Friday ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.

The Gaza Strip is suffering a humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s military campaign against Hamas that started October 7.

Hamas’ staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the death of roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and some 250 people taken hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 36,050 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has devastated the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said Monday that its jets had over the past 24 hours struck and destroyed “over 75 terror targets” across the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations has warned of looming famine in besieged Gaza, where most hospitals are no longer functioning.

On Tuesday Spain, Ireland and Norway are due to formally recognize a Palestinian state — a step so far taken by more than 140 UN members but few Western powers.