Category: World

Reyhan İnandı, the wife of a Turkish-Kyrgyz educator whose rendition from Kyrgyzstan by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) was acknowledged by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday, said photos showing her husband in handcuffs exposed the torture he has undergone, Turkish Minute reported.

“We were shocked,” the wife of Orhan İnandı was quoted as saying. “It’s obvious they tortured my husband. He has lost so much weight.”

Reyhan İnandı said the photos of her husband flanked by Turkish flags was announcing the torture to the world, labeling the affair “a disgrace for Turkey.”

İnandı, the founder and president of the Turkish-Kyrgyz Sapat school network operating in Kyrgyzstan, went missing on May 31 and was feared to have been abducted by MİT due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen. The movement is labeled as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government and accused of masterminding a failed coup in Turkey in July 2016. Both Gülen and his followers strongly deny any involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Erdoğan on Monday acknowledged that İnandı was abducted by Turkish spies and brought to Turkey, praising their efforts in the rendition.

Photos of İnandı in handcuffs with Turkish flags prompted allegations of torture due to İnandı’s visible weight loss and swollen right hand.

According to Şebnem Korur Fincancı, a doctor of forensics and the head of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), the photos of İnandı point to torture, either torture by hanging or direct blows to the arm.

“We see that one hand is larger than the other. We see a change of color on the larger hand. It might be due to some direct blows to the hand. Internal bleeding or edema are also possibilities,” Fincancı said and added, “But the arm with the larger hand also looks larger. It looks like (the arm) has swollen as a whole. He supports that hand as if there is a loss of strength. The swollen hand stands loose.”

Fincancı said such a condition could also be caused by positional, strappado-like torture methods, throughout which, standing in a fixed position, either by hanging or other means, damage the nerves of the victim. These positional torture methods might have also been accompanied by direct blows, according to Fincancı.

A huge disappointment

“All this time I was given the hope that my husband was in Kyrgyzstan. I had really trusted the Kyrgyz government. I had trusted the ministers who had spoken with me. I believed everything I was told [by them]. The result is a huge disappointment. My family and I are heartbroken. Twenty-six years of work shouldn’t have yielded this result. I have ended up experiencing what I feared the most,” Reyhan İnandı said in a series of tweets.

Over the past five years scores of men alleged by Turkish authorities to have links to the Gülen movement, living in countries around the world, have been arbitrarily detained and forcibly returned to Turkey. There they are incarcerated on bogus terrorism charges in violation of due process rights and protections.

A recent report by Freedom House on global transnational repression also revealed the intensity, geographic reach and suddenness of the Turkish government’s campaign targeting dissidents abroad, noting that Turkey has become number one among countries that have conducted renditions from host states since 2014.

MİT chief Hakan Fidan: Running a global campaign to suppress dissent on Erdoğan’s orders

According to recent official statements by its interior ministry, Turkey 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.

Since it started in 2014 Hakan Fidan, the head of MİT, has been in charge of the campaign at the request of Erdoğan.

Evidence gathered by investigations by experts and journalists suggests that Gülen movement members who have been rendered from various countries in abduction schemes designed by Fidan faced torture.

According to a joint letter written by four UN rapporteurs dated May 2020, the abductions carried out by MİT tend to follow a similar pattern. After Turkey fails to secure a legal extradition, authorities resort to illegal covert operations. Targeted individuals are placed under “around-the-clock surveillance, followed by house raids and arbitrary arrests in undercover operations by law enforcement or intelligence officers in plainclothes,” the letter explained.

Once arrested, the target is taken to an unmarked vehicle by force, after which they can remain forcibly disappeared for up to several weeks before deportation.

“During that period they are often subjected to coercion, torture and degrading treatment aimed at obtaining their consent on voluntary return and at extracting confessions that would inform criminal prosecution upon arrival in Turkey,” the letter said.

Turkish operatives tend to use a variety of torture methods to obtain these forced confessions, including food and sleep deprivation, waterboarding, electric shocks and beatings, the rapporteurs wrote in the letter based on personal testimonies.

“This is coupled with threats against lives, security and personal integrity of family members and relatives,” the UN rapporteurs said. 

A former member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has said it’s likely President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son-in-law and former finance minister Berat Albayrak were involved in the alleged arming of civilians during a 2016 coup attempt and afterward, Turkish media reported on Friday.

Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker on Thursday revealed that a large number of civilians were armed with unregistered guns during the 2016 coup attempt and afterward, under the coordination of then-minister of labor and current interior minister Süleyman Soylu.

He alleged that a box of unregistered AK-47s was taken from the Esenyurt district of İstanbul to the Balat neighborhood in the city’s Fatih district in an official car belonging to the then-AKP İstanbul youth branch chairman one night in the first week of August 2016, less than a month after the July 15 coup attempt, in which 249 people were killed.

Peker added that Abdülsebur Soğanlı, head of the AKP’s Esenyurt youth branch, interior ministry official Ahmet Onay, then-AKP İstanbul youth branch chairman Taha Ayhan and then-vice chair and current head of the AKP’s İstanbul youth branch Osman Tomakin were involved in the transportation of the weapons coordinated by Soylu back in 2016.

During a televised interview on TV5, then-AKP İstanbul provincial chair and current vice chair of the opposition Gelecek (Future) Party Selim Temurci said Erdoğan and Albayrak were more likely to be involved in the alleged arming of civilians during the attempted coup and afterward rather than Soylu.

“Who in the world can transport [unregistered] AK-47s in the car of the AKP İstanbul youth branch chairman of the time and then distribute them [to civilians] without the knowledge of the president?” Temurci said.

“If my youth branch chairman was involved in such a thing, then let me say this clearly: I think Berat Albayrak must have been much more involved in this than Soylu,” he added.

Meanwhile, Onay on Thursday confirmed in a series of tweets that he was present in the car with Ayhan and Soğanlı, like Peker claimed, but didn’t see any weapons being transported since he didn’t get out of the car because he was still recovering from the injuries he sustained during the coup attempt.

Opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) deputy chairman Mustafa Yeneroğlu on Friday asked in a parliamentary question posed to Soylu whether the claims that he coordinated the distribution of unregistered weapons to civilian groups in 2016 was true.

Soylu and his shadowy relations with the mafia have been a hot topic in the Turkish media ever since Peker, the head of one of Turkey’s most powerful mafia groups and once a staunch supporter of Erdoğan, has since early May been making shocking revelations about state-mafia relations, drug trafficking and murders implicating state officials and their family members.

Soylu has so far been Peker’s main target, primarily because he ordered a police raid on the gangster’s house in April when his wife and three children were home alone and because he called Peker “a dirty mafia leader” in a tweet.turkishminute

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into the opposition Birgün newspaper on allegations of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his far-right election ally in a report on the government’s relationship with the mafia, Birgün reported on Thursday.

The investigation was launched due to a report published in the daily’s Sunday supplement on May 25, featuring a photo of Erdoğan ally Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), with mafia boss Alaadin Çakıcı and a photo of Erdoğan with criminal gang leader Sedat Peker.

The photo was taken when Bahçeli visited Çakıcı, who was serving time for a number of crimes, at a hospital in Kırıkkale in May 2018 after he was admitted for health problems.

Çakıcı, who had been convicted of establishing and leading a criminal organization, masterminding a murder, instigating an assault and insulting President Erdoğan, with each carrying a lengthy prison sentence, was released from prison in April 2020 as part of a law that eased overcrowding in the country’s prisons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Birgün ran the headline “The rule of the gangs,” with the Bahçeli-Çakıcı photo in addition to a photo of Erdoğan with Peker, who has been shaking the Turkish politics with his statements since early May about the shady relationship between the mafia and state actors. Having fled to Dubai, the mafia boss has been making shocking revelations in his YouTube videos about state-mafia relations, drug trafficking and murders implicating state officials and their family members.

The daily is facing charges of insulting a public official, Bahçeli, and insulting the president, Erdoğan, with its story.

Birgün’s politics editor Mehmet Emin Kurnaz has testified to prosecutors at the İstanbul Courthouse as part of the investigation.

Turkish journalists are often targeted and jailed for their professional activities. Turkey is one of the world’s biggest jailers of professional journalists and ranked 153rd among 180 countries in terms of press freedom in 2021, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).turkishminute

The lawyer for the family of Turkish-Kyrgyz educator Orhan İnandı, who was recently abducted by the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT), on Wednesday called on President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov to declare the Turkish ambassador in Bishkek persona non grata, local media reported.

“In connection with the special operation carried out by the Turkish side, we ask you to declare the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkey, Ahmet Sadık Doğan, persona non grata in accordance with Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” lawyer Taalaigul Toktakunova said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday had confirmed that İnandı, who went missing on the night of May 31, was abducted by Turkish intelligence due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen. İnandı is the founder and president of the prestigious Sapat school network operating in Kyrgyzstan.

Turkish Ambassador Doğan was summoned on Tuesday by Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev upon an order from President Japarov. He was handed an official note of protest denouncing the abduction of İnandı.

Japarov said in an interview that his government would demand İnandı’s prompt return to Kyrgyzstan. According to his spokesperson it is “absurd to speculate” that Kyrgyz authorities were involved in the kidnapping of İnandı. But rights groups say it’s unlikely he could have been taken without their complicity.

In a statement Human Rights Watch’s Hugh Williamson said, “That İnandı, a dual Turkish-Kyrgyz national, could be abducted and missing for weeks on Kyrgyz soil only to be illegally removed from the country by Turkey’s intelligence services, suggests the Kyrgyz government is either unwilling or unable to stand up to Ankara or directly colluded with them.”

According to the 24.kg news website, Kyrgyzstan’s Ambassador to Turkey Kubanychbek Omuraliev met with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kıran on Wednesday, requesting information on the whereabouts of İnandı and asking for consular access. Kıran said he would forward the request to the Justice Ministry.

Yet, Omuraliev was seen in photos shared by Kıran the same day to be in high spirits during the opening of a photo exhibition at Turkey’s Foreign Ministry to mark the 30th anniversary of the independence of Kyrgyzstan.

According to the AKIpress news website, Kyrgyz parliamentarians asked First Deputy Foreign Minister Nuran Niyazaliev if Ambassador Omuraliev would be called home for consultations if his request to visit İnandı was turned down.

Niyazaliev said everything depended on Turkey’s response. “We will carry out further work depending upon this reply,” he added.

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

Over the past five years, scores of men alleged by the Turkish authorities to have links with the Gülen movement, living in countries around the world, have been arbitrarily detained and forcibly returned to Turkey. There they are incarcerated on bogus terrorism charges in violation of due process rights and international law protecting basic rights including to liberty and security, a fair trial, and freedoms of opinion, expression, and association.

In several of these cases the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the arrest, detention and forced transfer to Turkey of Turkish nationals were arbitrary and in violation of international human rights norms and standards.

A recent report by Freedom House on global transnational repression also revealed the intensity, geographic reach and suddenness of the Turkish government’s campaign targeting dissidents abroad, noting that Turkey has become number one among countries that have conducted renditions from host states since 2014.

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

An Austrian court on Monday ruled to keep in detention a Turkish businessman involved in a money-laundering scheme in the United States and accused of involvement in large-scale corruption in Turkey, the Demirören news agency reported.

The court in the Austrian city of Wels rejected a plea from Sezgin Baran Korkmaz for his release on the grounds that he posed a flight risk or could tamper with evidence.

Korkmaz, who was arrested in Austria on a US warrant on July 19, fled Turkey in December 2020. He is sought both by Turkey and the US.

The Austrian court will make a decision about his extradition at a hearing scheduled for Aug. 5 and is awaiting documents related to his case from the United States. The court will also examine documents sent by Turkey, which also officially demanded the businessman’s extradition.

Korkmaz is accused of laundering over $133 million in fraud proceeds through his bank accounts, according to the US indictment against him, which refers to his ties to Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston and Levon Termendzhyan and alleges that he devised a scheme to defraud the Kingston brothers by falsely representing that he could provide them with protection, through unnamed government officials, from a federal grand jury investigation and civil lawsuits.

Korkmaz was business partners with the Kingstons, the executives of a Salt Lake City biodiesel company who pleaded guilty in US federal court to a $511 million tax credit scheme in March 2020.

American prosecutors want him tried in the US. Speaking from jail to a Turkish reporter, Korkmaz said he would rather face justice at home, where he is also wanted for money laundering and fraud.

The businessman has denied the claims against him.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday acknowledged that Turkish-Kyrgyz educator Orhan İnandı, who went missing in Bishkek on the night of May 31, was actually abducted by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), lauding the Turkish spies’ efforts in the rendition.

İnandı, the founder and president of the Turkish-Kyrgyz Sapat school network operating in Kyrgyzstan was feared to have been abducted by MİT due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen. The movement is labeled as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government and accused of masterminding a failed coup in Turkey in July 2016. Both Gülen and his followers strongly deny any involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Erdoğan said, “MİT, through genuine and patient work, brought the FETÖ [a derogatory acronym used by Ankara to describe the Gülen movement] member in charge of Central Asia, Orhan İnandı, back to Turkey.”

On June 9 Erdoğan told Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov during an official visit to Ankara that he had no idea of the whereabouts of İnandı, according to an aide to the Kyrgyz president.

Kyrgyz lawmakers, citizens, prominent rights groups and activists around the globe have urged the Kyrgyz government to locate İnandı.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Kyrgyz authorities to investigate the disappearance of İnandı, a dual Turkish-Kyrgyz citizen.

According to HRW, allowing İnandı’s rendition to Turkey would violate Kyrgyzstan’s obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which it ratified in 1997.

Nowhere is safe for Gülen movement members

Erdoğan continued his speech by vowing that his government will ensure that Gülen movement members will find no safe haven wherever they go.

Touting MİT’s previous operations in rendering Gülen movement members from around the world, Erdoğan said it was not always possible for him to share information about these operations with the public due to the “nature” of the matter, acknowledging that more than 100 Gülenists have been rendered to Turkey from various countries.

According to a recent report by Freedom House on transnational repression, 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.

Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim 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 an abortive putsch in July 2016.

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.

There are currently 25,467 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed on alleged links to the Gülen movement, the official data indicate.

The government also removed more than 130,000 civil servants from their jobs on alleged Gülen links following the coup attempt.

In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.

The wife of a Turkish-Kyrgyz educator feared to have been abducted by Turkish intelligence began a “justice watch” in front of the Kyrgyz presidential place on Monday, demanding that her husband be found, the TR724 news website reported.

Reyhan İnandı, the wife of Orhan İnandı, founder of the Sapat schools in Kyrgyzstan, is staging a solitary protest in the front of the palace of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov to urge authorities to exert greater efforts to locate her husband.

“As of today, I am beginning my justice watch. May God help me. May all those who have gone missing be found. I refer all the tyrants and their cronies to God,” Reyhan İnandı tweeted after launching her protest.

Reyhan İnandı will stand for one hour every day holding a placard asking where her husband is, reminiscent of a three-month protest staged by Aigul Japarova, the wife of Kyrgyz President Japarov, after he was jailed.

Japarov had been behind bars for three and a half years, during which time his parents and son had died. He was elected president for a six-year term 97 days after he was released from prison.

Orhan İnandı went missing in Bishkek on the night of May 31 and is allegedly being held against his will in the Turkish Embassy in Bishkek due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement.

Over the past five years scores of men alleged by Turkish authorities to have links to the Gülen movement, living in countries around the world, have been arbitrarily detained and forcibly returned to Turkey. There they are incarcerated on bogus terrorism charges in violation of due process rights and protections.

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.

Since June 1, protests have been taking place in Bishkek and major capitals around the world including Washington, Berlin, London and Brussels in support of the Turkish educator, demanding his release. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on Turkey to promptly take all measures necessary to establish the whereabouts of İnandı and said the government should ensure that İnandı would not be subjected to torture and inhuman treatment, guarantee his physical and mental integrity and immediately place him under the protection of the law.

Rights organizations have also asked Kyrgyz authorities to exert efforts for the release of İnandı. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Kyrgyz authorities to investigate the disappearance of İnandı and “ensure his safety and that he is not unlawfully removed to Turkey.” According to HRW, allowing İnandı’s rendition to Turkey would violate Kyrgyzstan’s obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which it ratified in 1997.

Zeybegül Yılmaz, who has a 5-year-old special needs child, was detained yesterday evening in İzmir for alleged links to the Gülen movement, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported citing Bold Medya.

Yılmaz’s son, Salih, suffers from developmental problems and needs constant care. Salih’s father, Fatih Yılmaz, was arrested in 2016 and is currently serving a seven year, six month sentence in Eskişehir Prison.

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. Erdoğan 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.

Critics have slammed Turkish authorities for detaining and arresting mothers with young or sick children.

According to a report by Solidarity with Others, a Brussels-based nongovernmental organization that mainly consists of political exiles from Turkey, a total of 219 pregnant women and women with children under 6 years of age have been arbitrarily detained or arrested over their suspected links to the Gülen movement.

According to a statement from Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on February 20, 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 there are currently 25,467 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed on alleged links to the movement.

Turkey has set the clock back 10 years on women’s rights by withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention and has also set a “terrifying precedent,” Amnesty International said in a press release on Thursday, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.

Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said the withdrawal, “sends a reckless and dangerous message to perpetrators who abuse, maim and kill that they can carry on doing so with impunity.” Callamard added that the “deplorable decision,” which becomes effective today, had become a rallying point for women’s rights all over the world.

On March 20 President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a decree withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, an international accord designed to protect women’s rights and prevent domestic violence in societies, sparking outrage in Turkey and the international community.

The Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court, rejected an appeal demanding cancellation of the presidential decree that pulled out of the international treaty.

The Istanbul Convention was opened for signature during the CoE Ministers Committee meeting hosted by Turkey in 2011.A survey conducted by Metropoll has revealed that 52.3 percent of Turks are against the government’s decision to withdraw from the convention.

Prominent women in Turkey have campaigned against the decision to withdraw from the convention and thousands of women took to the streets to protest.

Gender-based violence is serious problem in Turkey. According to a report published earlier by Sezgin Tanrıkulu,  a human rights defender and Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker, nearly 7,000 women have been victims of femicide during the 18 years that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power.

Despite alarming data, Turkey withdrew from the convention instead of working for its better implementation because Turkish conservatives claimed the charter damaged family unity, encouraged divorce and that its references to equality were being used by the LGBT community to gain broader acceptance in society.

World leaders, including US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, international and regional organizations and rights groups have reacted negatively to Turkey’s decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu’s rights to be elected and engage in political activities as well as his right to liberty and security were violated through his imprisonment, the Turkish media reported.

Gergerlioğlu is a former pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker and a prominent human rights activist. He was stripped of his parliamentary status in March and was subsequently jailed.

In a series of tweets he posted on Wednesday, Gergerlioğlu’s son, Salih Gergerlioğlu said he believes that his father will be a free man soon. “My father is being released from prison. He is being released!” he said

Gergerlioğlu was stripped of his status in parliament on March 17 after conviction of disseminating “terrorist propaganda” in a 2016 social media post, where he commented on a story that reported on outlawed Kurdish militants calling on the Turkish state to take a step towards peace.