Category: World

German authorities have rejected the asylum applications of two Turkish teachers who worked for schools with ties to the Gülen movement, taking action to deport them to Bulgaria, where they face extradition to Turkey, which accuses the group of masterminding a failed coup in 2016, the Bold Medya news website reported.

The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch.

According to a special report by Sevinç Özarslan from Bold Medya, Jülide Çetin and Şeyma Demirel, who worked as English teachers arrived in Germany on June 18 with a visa issued by Bulgaria and applied for asylum in the country. They have been kept at the airport for 36 days and say they await deportation within four or five days.

The teachers claim they will not be safe in Bulgaria as the country has deported at least seven Gülen-linked asylum seekers to Turkey, where they faced prosecution.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip 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 coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding.

According to the latest information provided by Turkish officials, 622,646 people have been the subject of investigation and 301,932 have been detained, while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the failed coup.

According to recent official statements by Turkey’s interior ministry, Ankara has sent 800 extradition requests to 105 countries since the coup attempt, and some 110 alleged members of the Gülen movement have been brought back to Turkey as part of the government’s global campaign.

A recent report by Freedom House on transnational repression states that Turkey has become number one among countries that have conducted renditions from host states since 2014. The Turkish government has pursued its perceived enemies in at least 30 host countries spread across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia since July 2016.

“Ankara’s campaign has primarily targeted people affiliated with the movement of religious leader Fethullah Gülen, which the government blames for the coup attempt,” the report said.

The report sheds light on the corruption and co-optation of some host country institutions including local police or security services that arrested Turkish citizens, who are then held in detention for a short period before being secretly transferred to Turkish custody and immediately taken to Turkey on Turkish aircraft.

“Turkey’s top officials openly claim credit for the kidnapping offensive against the Gülen movement, and praise the role of the MİT in the renditions,” the report stated.

Starting in 2016 Turkey intensified its efforts to bring back Gülen followers from around the world.

“We will return to the country one by one those [Gülenists] who fled and now think they’re safe,” Erdoğan vowed at the time.

Case of Abdullah Büyük

Businessman Abdullah Büyük, facing prosecution in Turkey over Gülen links, moved to Bulgaria in 2016, imagining the country would be safe for him as an EU member state.

Bulgarian courts denied an extradition request from Turkey for Büyük. However, the Turkish foreign minister announced publicly that they planned to bring “a person of interest” back from Bulgaria.

On his way to a meeting in Sofia, police blocked Büyük’s vehicle. Bulgarians drove him 180 miles to the border, where they handed him over to Turkish authorities.

Accused of membership in a terrorist organization since Ankara designates the movement as such, he was kept in pretrial detention for more than three years and was later released into house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet while his trial continued.

In a draft report on Turkey prepared by the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee the members of the European Parliament strongly condemned “forced extraditions, kidnapping and abduction of Turkish citizens residing outside Turkey on the sole basis of their alleged links to the Gülen movement” and urged the European Union to address the “worrying” practice in its own member states, notably in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria to pay damages for deporting Turkish journalist

On Tuesday the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that Bulgaria had violated the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights by removing a Turkish journalist who fled Ankara’s crackdown on dissent.

In 2016 the Bulgarian authorities had refused to initiate asylum proceedings for journalist D, who was not named by the ECtHR, and had returned him to Turkey.

The ECtHR held that despite the fact that the applicant had expressed fears that he might face ill-treatment in the event of being returned to Turkey, the Bulgarian authorities had not examined his application for international protection.

“D. previously worked for the Zaman daily newspaper and the Cihan press agency, both belonging to the Feza Media Group, which was viewed as ‘Gülenist’ and as critical of the existing political regime in Turkey,” the ECtHR said in its decision.

“On 6 March 2016 the group’s entire board was replaced by a committee of three members appointed by an Istanbul court. According to the international press, from that date onwards, Zaman adopted a pro-government editorial policy. D stated that after that date he had been dismissed and had his press card withdrawn. Following the adoption of a legislative decree issued on 27 July 2016 in the context of the state of emergency introduced in Turkey after the attempted coup of 15 July 2016, Zaman was closed down. According to D’s explanations, he left Turkey after those events, at a time when a range of measures were being taken against media outlets and journalists (dismissal, arrest, detention and confiscation of passports),” the ECtHR said, stating the principal facts regarding the case.

“Between September and October 2016, D and eight other passengers (six Turkish and two Syrian nationals) crossed the border between Turkey and Bulgaria hidden in a heavy goods vehicle.”

According to the ECtHR decision citing D’s account, they were detained at a Bulgarian border police station and despite the fact that D and and other passengers stated that they wished to seek asylum their requests were to no avail.

“On 15 October 2016, at about 5.30 a.m., D was allegedly handcuffed and taken with the other six Turkish passengers to the Kapitan Andreevo border post, where they were handed over to the Turkish authorities,” the ECtHR said.

D was immediately jailed in Turkey and was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced to seven years, six months’ imprisonment. The journalist is currently incarcerated in Kocaeli’s Kandıra Prison.

The ECtHR concluded that, despite the fact that D had expressed fears that he might face ill-treatment in the event of being returned to Turkey, the Bulgarian authorities had not examined his application for international protection, violating the Articles 3 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The court ordered Bulgaria to pay D 15,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages.

Prominent Turkish journalist and professor of economics Mehmet Altan has filed a lawsuit for damages against one of the judges who failed to provide his timely release from prison despite rulings from Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the t24 news website reported.

Mehmet Altan was one of dozens of journalists who were arrested in Turkey in a crackdown on government critics in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July 2016.

Altan filed the compensation case against presiding judge of the İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court Orkun Dağ, who forced the journalist to remain in prison for an additional five and a half months.

Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) took no action against Dağ due to his failure to observe the rulings of the Constitutional Court and the ECtHR about Altan. He was even later promoted and became a member of Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court in January 2018 ruled that Altan’s right to freedom had been violated, while the ECtHR ruled in March 2018 that Altan’s right to liberty and security as well as his right to freedom of expression were violated during his imprisonment. Altan’s incarceration, however, continued until June 2018

He was later acquitted of the charges in a retrial.

During his trial, Altan was expelled from the university he was working for in İstanbul due to the charges he faced, and his demand to be reinstated was rejected by a commission set up by the Turkish government to look into complaints from individuals who were adversely affected by government decrees during a state of emergency (OHAL) declared following the coup.

Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu, who filed the compensation case on her client’s behalf, said she is sad to be acting as an attorney in a country where judges who contravene the constitution are protected.

“My goal is to keep a record of this arbitrariness,” said the lawyer.

The compensation case against Dağ will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Appeals. If the court rules in favor of Altan, this will be the first time since the failed coup that a member of the Turkish judiciary will pay compensation for their failure to observe the rulings of the rights courts.

It has become frequent for Turkish courts not to act in line with the rulings of the Constitutional Court or the ECtHR. Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş and prominent businessman Osman Kavala are behind bars despite ECtHR rulings calling for their release.

The Brooklyn Eyup Sultan Mosque, which is funded and operated by Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), on Sunday denied religious services for deceased Turkish-American businessman Muharrem Atmaca due to his links to the Gülen movement, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing the TR724 news website.

Atmaca’s family contacted the mosque, scheduled the funeral prayer with imam Mehmet Aydın and informed their loved ones and the Turkish-American community. Yet, only half an hour before the prayer, someone from the funeral home called the grieving family and said they received a call from the mosque saying that they wouldn’t be able to conduct the prayer service “upon instructions from the Turkish Consulate General in New York.”

The family had to perform the funeral prayer in a small room in the funeral home.

Atmaca was a businessman who immigrated to New York 40 years ago. He was a well-known figure in the Turkish-American community due to his support for numerous philanthropic projects. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 2020 and passed away on Friday.

“He was someone loved and respected by people with different worldviews,” Atmaca’s family said. “He has been donating to the mosque that refused to conduct his funeral prayer for years. It was a huge disappointment for us.”

Atmaca was buried in a Muslim cemetery in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. following a prayer led by Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who inspired the Gülen movement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip 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 a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Diyanet-affiliated mosques and foundations around the world have been accused of acting as Erdoğan’s propaganda tools and involvement in spying on his critics. Through its foundation Diyanet provides funding and appoints imams, who are public servants on the government payroll, to the overseas mosques.

The story of a woman who sought asylum in Greece together with her family but was returned to Turkey reveals the ordeal of refugees who are being pushed back in increasing numbers.

Speaking to Dilek Gül of Euronews Turkish, the woman, identified as E.K., said after crossing the border and walking for four hours, her family and the group they were traveling with came across the Greek police and told them they wanted to seek political asylum. Yet, the police confiscated their IDs and mobile phones and handed them over to two armed, masked men. They were then taken to a forest where only the women were strip-searched.

According to E.K. they were abused during the search. “They touched the vaginal areas with their fingers … all this happened in front of others, including children,” she said. They were then returned to Turkey, where her husband was arrested and she was conditionally released.

E.K.’s husband was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization for his alleged links to the Gülen movement. He was in prison for a year and was released pending appeal. After his sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals, the family decided to leave the country.

“He didn’t want to go back to prison,” E.K. said. “Since he was in prison before, he knows how bad the conditions are there.”

They wanted to travel to another country in Europe through Greece, but they had to cross the border illegally because the government refuses to issue them passports.

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. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

E.K. herself is a former public servant fired from her job over alleged Gülen links. Although no explanation was provided, she guesses it was because of an account she had in the now-closed Bank Asya, one of Turkey’s largest commercial banks at the time, which was affiliated with followers of the movement.

In the aftermath of the abortive putsch, more than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 29,444 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.

“What we went through is inhuman,” E.K. said. “We are poor people who risk death to seek asylum and they give us another trauma. As a European country Greece shouldn’t have been this barbaric.”

In a report published last month Amnesty International harshly criticized the Greek government and the European Union’s border agency Frontex for violent and illegal detention of refugees and pushbacks.

“It is clear that multiple arms of the Greek authorities are closely coordinating to brutally apprehend and detain people who are seeking safety in Greece, subjecting many to violence, then transferring them to the banks of the Evros River before summarily returning them to Turkey,” Adriana Tidona, migration researcher for Europe at Amnesty International, said. “Our research shows that violent pushbacks have become the de facto Greek border control policy in the Evros region. The level of organization needed to execute these returns, which affected around 1000 people in the incidents we documented, some numerous times and sometimes via unofficial detention sites, shows just how far Greece is going to illegally return people and cover it up.”

According to the report pushbacks are not only taking place in border areas. People are also being apprehended and detained far into the Greek mainland before being transported to the Evros region to be illegally returned to Turkey.

“All of the people we spoke to were pushed back from areas where Frontex has significant numbers of staff,” Tidona said. “The agency cannot therefore claim to be ignorant of the abuses that we, and many others, have documented. Frontex has the duty to prevent human rights violations, if they cannot do this effectively, they should withdraw or suspend operations in Greece.”

Amnesty called on the European Commission to launch infringement proceedings against Greece “for its violation of EU asylum and fundamental rights law.”

A documentary telling the stories of some of the victims of Turkey’s post-coup crackdown who were able to leave the country through Greece premiered on YouTube on the anniversary of the abortive putsch of July 15, 2016.

Titled “I crossed the Maritsa, leaving behind 40 years of memories,” the documentary gives voice to supporters of the faith-based Gülen movement who fled persecution after imprisonment or trial on terrorism-related charges. Its title is taken from a poem by Halil Dinç, a teacher who died shortly after taking refuge in Greece. The Maritsa River constitutes part of the border between Turkey and Greece and is used frequently by refugees.

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. He locked up thousands including many prosecutors, judges and police officers involved in the investigation as well as journalists who reported on them.

Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following the coup attempt in July 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive crackdown. One hundred sixty-four media outlets, 1,058 educational institutions and close to 2,000 NGOs were shut down without any due process. More than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 29,444 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.

According to a statement by Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, a total of 622,646 people have been the subject of investigation and 301,932 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 as of February 2021 there are 25,467 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed on alleged links to the Gülen movement.

The Turkish government accepted such daily activities as having an account at or depositing money in a Gülen movement-affiliated bank, working at any institutions linked to the movement or subscribing to certain newspapers and magazines as benchmarks for identifying and arresting tens of thousands alleged members of the movement on charges of membership in a terrorist organization.

A military coup is always planned and certain conditions must be met for a coup to take place. One of them is the agreement in the chain of command amongst the military leadership. Among the individuals and ranks to be considered, the role of the Chief of Staff and the commanding officers are critical. This is because, if these powerful individuals issue a statement in opposition to military activity leading to a coup, this can prevent the event occurring.

Special Forces Commander Zekai Aksakallı said, “In times of crisis, personnel are ordered to remain with their units. If this order had been given to army personnel, the coup’s true nature would have been exposed’’. This statement by Zekai Aksakallı shows that Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar was not against the coup, but was part of the planned intelligence operation.

WHY WERE THE COMMANDERS HIDING?

The actions of the commanding officers during, before and after July 15 are not in line with standard military procedure. Why does a commander not give any orders until the morning after while his subordinates are waiting for orders? Why would a commander remain hidden, or treat an officer close to him as the leader of the coup while he is at the Akıncı base in Ankara?

WHY WAS THE PUBLIC INVITED TO THE STREETS?

If there was a military uprising, why would the ruling party call the people to the streets, not the state’s security forces? Among the people who were called to the streets, 99% of those who died were killed not by soldiers but by armed people whose origins were unknown. It is clearly seen in forensic medical reports that bullets that not in the TSK’s inventory were used and civilians standing face to face with military units were shot in the neck.

Why weren’t the people who were armed and cut off soldiers’ heads on a bridge investigated? These people were recognized as “heroes who prevented the coup”. Why weren’t the weapons of military personnel who were summoned to bridges, placed on the street or in action on July 15 subject to ballistic examinations? What was the reason for the action taken against military personnel who never served on July 15, who were abroad, on leave, retired or had died long ago? Why can’t journalists follow the July 15 trials? This was one of the most important events in Turkish history. Why aren’t the trials broadcasted live? Why are authorities afraid of what may be revealed?

WHY ARE THOSE WHO WRITE THE TRUTH ARRESTED?

Journalists who write about the facts revealed in courts and lawyers who describe the events in the courts are arrested and silenced. Why weren’t the Prime Minister, the President, the ministers, the deputies, any of the important figures who could be the target of the coup d’état arrested by the putschists on July 15? Why were commanding officers alleged to have been detained not as prisoners but as directors of the coup?

HOW CAN TWO DOCUMENTS BE THE SAME?

How can the Martial Law Directive, which is included in the records of court files, be said to have been prepared by the putschists? A document prepared long ago by the MIT had the same spelling and information errors? During a live broadcast, a Fox TV reporter said the parliament was bombed but planes were not flying there. How was the parliament bombed when there were no planes in the air? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE BOMBING OF PARLIAMENT? The Gölbaşı Police Special Operations building was bombed quite accurately, but why was there no hit recorded on the whole Parliament or the Presidential Palace? What benefit did the putschists think they would gain with these bombing activities? Why is there no physical damage or effects of the supposed bombings that are said to have taken place in the Parliament and the Palace? So much so that there was not even a fire. Why wasn’t all the national media (except for a show or two) commandeered by the putschists for their own use?

WHY WERE THESE NAMES EXCLUDED FROM THE COMMISSION?

Why were names such as the Chief of Staff, commanding officers, MIT Undersecretary, and important people such as Zekai Aksakallı excluded from the Coup Investigation Commission? Why are they not being tried in the courts or accused of carrying out the coup? How could the President, Prime Minister and other government officials, who said that they could not reach the MIT Undersecretary or the Armed Forces Command during the coup attempt, come to the conclusion that the coup was carried out by members of the Hizmet Movement? WHY

IS THE HEAD OF MIT, WHO DID NOT NOTIFY OF THE COUP, STILL IN OFFICE?

Why did names such as the MIT Undersecretary and the Chief of General Staff, who did not share any information or warn the government about the coup attempt, continue their duties or were promoted after the coup? Why did the buses carrying the Air Force Academy students returning from Yalova to Istanbul not all follow the same route? They preferred different routes. How was it that there were armed people waiting for them at points and they were involved in a fire fight?

HOW DID EVENTS THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE GET DOCUMENTED?

How is it possible that thousands of Judges and Prosecutors in many provinces were grouped together with the putschists in the early hours after the coup attempt? This was before anything was truly understood and before anyone knew who had carried out the coup d’état of July 15? How can events that never happened on July 15 be recorded in the report of Public Prosecutor Serdar Coşkun, which forms the basis for the detention of the abovementioned judges and prosecutors?

An independent student platform at İstanbul’s Boğaziçi University has voiced their demand for a democratic election to be held at the university to elect a new rector, following the dismissal of Melih Bulu, whose appointment by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in early January sparked more than six months of protests.

A founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s Sarıyer district branch and former deputy chairman of the AKP’s İstanbul provincial chapter who had refused to step down amid the protests, Bulu was dismissed by Erdoğan via a decree published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.

Boğaziçi Dayanışması on Thursday said in a series of tweets that they would not accept a new rector to be appointed to replace Bulu, either from within or outside the university, since they oppose the appointment of rectors by Erdoğan and demand an election to choose one themselves.

In addition to the holding of a democratic election at Boğaziçi to choose a new rector, the student platform also demanded the reopening of the university’s LGBTI+ student club that was shuttered in February.

“The dismissal of a puppet who was appointed [by decree] at midnight [by another decree] at midnight doesn’t represent an achievement, but only a crisis of management and the lack of ability of the palace [Erdoğan]!” they said, vowing they would continue protests until all their demands are met.

“Our resistance hadn’t been going on for over six months so that the president could make a decision [for us]. We are the ones who will get our rights and freedom back! … Universities belong to us … not the government. [We call for] elections at all universities for autonomy,” Boğaziçi Direnişi, another student platform, stated.

Shortly after Bulu’s dismissal, the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) appointed the university’s vice rector, Prof. Dr. Naci İnci, as acting rector.

YÖK also made a written announcement regarding applications for the position of rector at Boğaziçi, saying candidates who meet the criteria would be able to apply for the position until Aug. 2.

Students and alumni as well as politicians and activists have since the beginning of January protested the appointment of Bulu as rector, arguing that it is a part of Erdoğan’s broader effort to centralize control over universities and that it undercuts academic freedoms and democracy.

Since early 2021 hundreds demanding the resignation of Bulu and the appointment of a rector from the university staff after the holding of an election have been detained for participating in the youth-driven protests that have echoes of the Gezi Park protests that erupted in 2013 against plans to demolish a park in İstanbul’s Taksim neighborhood before spreading nationally and presenting a direct challenge to Erdoğan’s rule.

Critics slammed the appointment of Bulu, saying he was not qualified for the job and that a state-appointed rector harmed the independence of the university.

Jeff Flake, a former senator and one of the most outspoken Republican foes of Donald Trump, was nominated Tuesday by President Joe Biden as ambassador to Turkey, tasked with managing one of the most complicated US alliances, Agence France-Presse reported.

Flake, who unlike many Republicans has never retracted his criticism of Trump and went so far as to campaign for Biden in last year’s election, said he was “humbled and honored” to be chosen as ambassador.

“This is a pivotal post at an important time for both of our countries,” Flake wrote in a blog post as his nomination was announced in a routine White House statement.

“With this nomination, the Biden administration reaffirms the best tradition of American foreign policy and diplomacy: the credo that partisan politics should stop at the water’s edge.”

Turkey, which has experienced major tensions with Washington in recent years but is also a vital partner in key areas such as Afghanistan, was one of the few prominent posts where Biden had left in place a Trump appointee — David Satterfield, a career diplomat with vast experience in the Middle East.

Flake’s confirmation in the Senate appears virtually assured as Democrats are in control and he remains friendly with many Republican colleagues. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said that Biden showed “wisdom” in choosing him.

Vociferous Trump critic

Flake, 58, has long been expected to be tapped for a diplomatic post but speculation had focused on an ambassadorship in Africa. Flake served as a Mormon missionary in South Africa and Zimbabwe and was active on African issues as a senator.

Biden earlier nominated another Republican critic of Trump from Arizona — Cindy McCain, widow of veteran senator John McCain — to be the US ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

With a boyish smile and an upright moral code commonly associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Flake clashed with Trump from the beginning of the brash tycoon’s political ascent -– even though Flake largely supported Trump’s legislative agenda.

In a speech before Harvard Law School in 2018, Flake said that “our presidency has been debased by a figure who has a seemingly bottomless appetite for destruction and division and only a passing familiarity with how the Constitution works.”

By then, Flake had already decided not to seek a second term in the Senate as an infuriated Trump purged the party.

Near the end of his term, Flake made headlines by appearing visibly distraught after two women approached him in an elevator to say how they survived rape and urge him to block Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — leading Flake to hold up the nomination temporarily until the FBI probed allegations against Kavanaugh. 

Flake will have a delicate task in handling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan –- who developed such a close relationship with Trump that he reportedly would call the US leader directly and without aides when he was golfing.

Biden as a candidate branded Erdoğan, who has roots in political Islam and has launched a sweeping crackdown after a failed coup attempt in 2016, an “autocrat” and vowed to support the opposition.

In April, Biden became the first US president to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, a categorization from which US leaders had shied away for decades under pressure from Turkey.

Relations have also been strained for years by Turkey’s purchase of an advanced air defense system from Russia, which defied US warnings that it was jeopardizing its role in the NATO alliance.

But Biden and Erdoğan appeared to find ways of cooperation when they met in June in Brussels on the sidelines of a NATO summit.

Erdoğan offered Turkish help in securing Kabul’s international airport, seen as crucial for the country’s long-term stability after Biden ordered a pullout of remaining US troops and as Taliban insurgents make rapid gains.

A pro-government social media account named “Jitemkurt” on Sunday published a list of Turkish journalists living in Europe and North America whom they plan to assassinate, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing Bold Medya.

The account published the names of 21 journalists resident in various countries and threatened to kill them. The name of the social media account refers to a group linked to the notorious gendarmerie intelligence unit JITEM.

JITEM’s existence was denied by the state for years. It was later officially acknowledged by former prime ministers Bülent Ecevit and Mesut Yılmaz. It has been linked to the disappearance and execution of Kurdish activists, politicians and businesspeople throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

There have been recent complaints in Europe by government critics concerning death threats by people allegedly linked to JITEM.

Sevim Dağdelen, a Kurdish-German politician from the German Left Party, said she received death threats from Turkish ultranationalist groups in March. Another female party member, Sarya Aytaç, was also threatened by groups linked to JITEM.

According to Jörg Schindler, the Left Party’s federal manager, the Turkish government was at the very least “tolerating” JITEM and that the German government needed to respond to these threats in the fastest and most effective way.

In the last few months some of the names on the list have been subject to violence in their homes by unknown people.

Erk Acarer, a Turkish journalist who is critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and has been living in exile in Germany, said he was attacked outside his home in Berlin on July 6 by three men who reportedly warned him to stop writing.

Swedish-based Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt was attacked on September 24 near his home in Stockholm. Bozkurt, who runs the Nordic Monitor news website, which provides exclusive and critical coverage on Turkey and exposes the clandestine activities of the notorious Turkish intelligence agency, suffered minor injuries in the attack.