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Turkish police used excessive force during Nevruz celebrations on Monday in southeastern Diyarbakır province, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing the TR724 news website.

Celebrations of the spring festival started early in the morning as large groups gathered at the festival venue. While many people chanted Kurdish slogans of freedom and peace, police did not allow Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) banners in the area.

Nearly 5,000 people were subjected to security searches at the entrance, and many protested that the police were far too slow. Police intervened against the buildup of angry people waiting to get in with batons, tear gas and anti-riot water cannon.

Journalist Erkam Tufan Aytav criticized the police interventions on Twitter, saying they were acts of violence.

According to the Cumhuriyet daily police officers were stationed at the celebration venue and that many people were detained for shouting slogans.

Nevruz is celebrated by Kurds as the first day of spring. However, Nevruz celebrations have often been marked by heavy-handed police intervention.

In 2017 a police officer fatally shot Kurdish university student Kemal Kurkut during Nevruz celebrations in Diyarbakır. Police found poetry books and clothing in Kurkut’s backpack after he was shot on suspicion that he was a “suicide bomber.”

Last year Istanbul police detained 14 people in the city celebration of Nevruz. Four people were detained for allegedly resisting police, while 10 were taken into custody on charges of disseminating “terrorist propaganda.”

Turkish police in the southern province of Adana sparked outrage when they employed batons, plastic bullets and pepper spray in what many said was a disproportionate use of force to disperse the members of an anti-government religious group who wanted to hold a peaceful demonstration on Sunday.

Hundreds of members of the Furkan Foundation gathered in Seyhan’s Cevat Yurdakul Street to make a press statement and hold a march in protest of the continued pretrial detention of eight foundation members who were arrested in January.

Yet, the group’s members including women and children faced acts of violence from the Adana riot police, who used their batons to batter the protestors. Video footage circulating on social media showed police officers randomly hitting the protestors with their batons while the protestors were heard saying, “Don’t hit me,” and trying desperately to protect themselves.

In one of the videos a police officer wearing a headscarf is seen pushing a headscarved Furkan member to the ground. This particular video attracted particular condemnation, with many saying that the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which has for years capitalized on the deprivation of the rights of headscarved women by the secularists in Turkey, is now using headscarf-wearing police officers to persecute other headscarf-wearing women.

The AKP and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have for years been claiming to defend the rights of pious Muslims, particularly headscarved women whom they said have been oppressed by the country’s secularists and deprived of their fundamental rights.

Kuytul also said it was impossible to exercise freedom of expression in a country whose interior minister is Süleyman Soylu.

Kuytul’s 15-year-old son, Muhammed, was among those who were subjected to police violence in Adana on Sunday and had to spend the night in a hospital due to bleeding on the brain after he was allegedly hit with a baton.

Kuytul’s wife, Semra, tweeted on Monday that in addition to her son, many Furkan members had suffered broken arms and other kinds of injuries.

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights activist and an MP from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), lashed out at Interior Minister Soylu and the police treatment of the Furkan members in Adana.

“They recklessly hit a person on the ground. They can’t account for these scenes [of violence] before the law. There’s no limit to their tyranny. The law will come to this country some day,” Gergerlioğlu tweeted as he called on Soylu to explain the scenes in Adana.

Opposition party leaders Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu, Gelecek (Future) Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu and DEVA Party leader Ali Babacan condemned the AKP government for the police violence in Adana, saying Turkey did not even witness such scenes during the days of the Feb. 28 military coup, when the pious people in the country were under tremendous pressure.

The Feb. 28 coup, also referred to a post-modern coup, refers to the forced resignation of a coalition government in 1997 led by a now-defunct Islamist party on the grounds that there was rising religious fundamentalism in the country. The incident led to widespread restrictions on the lives of pious Muslims with a ban on headscarves for women in public service and universities.

Erk Acarer, a Turkish journalist in exile, tweeted that the police violence against Furkan members had nothing to do with religious or nationalist inclinations and that the only thing the government wants is the continuation of its rule.

“It can even kill a headscarved woman for this and collaborate with the devil,” he said, referring to the AKP, which has been in power since 2002.

In the meantime, amid growing criticism, Minister Soylu announced on Sunday evening that an investigation had been launched into the police officers who used “disproportionate force” against Furkan members in Adana.

“Using disproportionate force should not have been our way of handling this,” Soylu said, while accusing Furkan members of holding an illegal protest and getting involved in acts of provocation against the police.

Meanwhile, a voice recording among the riot police officers in Adana that was leaked on social media has them bragging about the violence used by female police officers against the protestors, with one officer heard saying, ”The girls have gotten rid of their frustration.” The police officers are also heard saying that they should have used this kind of force against Furkan members long ago.

The Furkan Foundation is known for being critical of the Turkish government and for advocating that religion and politics should not mix.

The foundation’s president Kuytul was arrested in 2018 for criticizing Turkey’s military involvement in northern Syria. He publicly opposed the government’s decision to send Turkish soldiers to Afrin, after which he was detained along with 28 other people from foundation.

They were charged with “abusing their religious power” and “organizing a terrorist organization.” Kuytul was acquitted in 2020, but raids on members’ homes and offices in various cities have repeatedly taken place since then.

Turkey is using broad accusations of terrorism to silence critics, said Nacho Sánchez Amor, an MEP from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, at the 79th meeting of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, Turkish Minute reported.

Amor said the label of terrorist is becoming a universal accusation in Turkey, asserting that doctors, students and opposition politicians are targeted with terror accusations due to their criticism of the Turkish government, or for simply doing their job in the case of lawyers and journalists.

“Do you realize how you are perceived from outside with this enormous spread of the accusation of terrorism?” Sanchez asked the Turkish delegation during the session.

Referring to a coup attempt in 2016, which is used by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a pretext to curtail freedoms, the rapporteur reminded that Turkey’s crackdown started well before the coup, pointing to the seizure of critical media outlets belonging to Koza İpek Holding.

Once owned by Akın İpek and his family, Koza İpek Holding was seized by the Turkish government in 2015 due to its alleged links to the Gülen movement, which is labeled by Erdoğan and his ruling AKP as a terrorist organization.

İpek, a Turkish businessman and the founder of Koza İpek Holding who has been living in the UK since 2015, faces jail time in Turkey over alleged Gülen links.

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 the abortive putsch that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

“When did the Gülen movement start to be terrorists?” Amor asked, citing the detention of thousands of people immediately after the coup attempt in July 2016.

The MEP said Gülen movement members who were involved in the coup should be held to account for their crimes; however, accusing a teacher “who worked in Indonesia for the past 20 years” of involvement in the coup attempt went against the principle of individual responsibility in criminal accusations.

Amor also pointed to the thousands of people who are under investigation over alleged insults of President Erdoğan.

Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey, according to the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). Whoever insults the president can face up to four years in prison, a sentence that can be increased if the crime was committed through the mass media.

The insult cases generally stem from social media posts shared by Erdoğan opponents. The Turkish police and judiciary perceive even the most minor criticism of the president or his government as an insult.

“What you call a crime, insulting the president, is a national sport in our countries,” Amor said.

The Turkish government’s vague definition of “terrorism” resulted in hundreds of thousands of terrorism investigations into as many people, primarily members of the Gülen movement.

Since the attempted coup, Erdoğan has been accusing a growing number of opponents and groups opposing his decisions of being “terrorists,” a move seen by critics as an attempt to reinforce his authoritarian governance. SCF

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made a U-turn on remarks targeting the country’s doctors that led to outrage in the medical community last week, saying Turkey needs its doctors and that measures are on the way to improve the working conditions of healthcare professionals.

Erdoğan in a speech last week condemned an increasing number of Turkish doctors who choose to move to the private sector or go abroad for better job opportunities, saying they are free to go and that Turkey will find ways to make up for their loss.

After facing an angry reaction from the medical community, thousands of whose members took to the streets on the occasion of Medicine Day, marked every March 14 in Turkey, Erdoğan on Monday praised the efforts of doctors, especially during the pandemic, and said, “Turkey is always in need of its doctors and is indebted to them.”

Erdoğan’s remarks, which showed a clear softening in his stance towards doctors, came at an event marking Medicine Day in Ankara where he also announced some “good news” regarding the working conditions of health professionals.

Erdoğan said his government would take action to solve the problems of the medical community, including the introduction of harsher penalties for crimes against health professionals, the creation of a professional liability board, improvements in salary, better retirement benefits and an increase in payments to family physicians.

Health professional announced earlier that they would go on strike across Turkey on Medicine Day and on March 15 in an effort to get their demands heard by the ruling party.

They are calling for more manageable workloads, increased security and a rise in pay due to the huge workload caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising cases of physical violence against healthcare employees and soaring inflation –- registered at a two-decade high, according to official figures -– that reduce doctors’ salaries to close to the minimum wage.

Only emergency care services were being provided at healthcare facilities across the country on Monday as part of the strike launched by 10 health organization including the Turkish Medical Association (TTB).

Protesting healthcare workers faced police intervention in some venues on Monday, with representatives of the İstanbul Chamber of Physicians prevented from laying a wreath at the Atatürk Monument in Taksim Square on the occasion of Medicine Day.

“We are all physicians. We will lay a wreath and go. What is this scandal for? Shame on you, Erdoğan,” said one of the protestors.

Some opposition party politicians also voiced support for healthcare workers in the wake of Erdoğan’s remarks targeting them.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu tweeted: “Healthcare workers, to whom we trust our lives, we hold you in high esteem. Be patient, we’re almost there. We will send the man in the palace [Erdoğan] away! We will establish a healthcare system in which your working conditions are better and you will be properly rewarded for your efforts. Happy Medicine Day!”

An İstanbul court on Friday ordered the release of prominent TV journalist Sedef Kabaş, who has been behind bars since Jan. 22, handing down a suspended sentence of two years, four months on charges of insulting the president, local media reported on Friday.

Kabaş was facing up to 12 years, 10 months in prison for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu.

The İstanbul 36th Criminal Court of First Instance on Friday released Kabaş at her first hearing, acquitting her of the charges of insulting a public official and giving her a suspended sentence for insulting the president.

Kabaş said in her defense that she would walk free if she were a member of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or a drug dealer.

“If I were a member of ISIL today and on the police’s suicide bomber list, I’d be free. I’d be walking free if I were trafficking drugs,” she said on Friday.

Kabaş added that she would harshly criticize Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) if necessary but that it would be within the scope of freedom of expression and a part of a journalist’s job.

“I’ll continue to speak the truth after all the current government has done to me, to us,” Kabaş vowed.

“Is there a judge in this country who would stand up to a request by Tayyip Erdoğan? That judge must risk banishment. … This trial won’t end here. We’ll file an application at the ECtHR [European Court of Human Rights] after exhausting all [domestic] remedies. I’ve never worshipped power, I wish you wouldn’t, either,” Kabaş’s lawyer Uğur Poyraz said Friday.

“Sedef Kabaş is now free” the journalist announced in a tweet posted upon her release

Kabaş was detained during a midnight police raid in İstanbul on Jan. 22 following comments she made about Erdoğan on a TV program aired on TELE1 on Jan. 14.

Commenting on Erdoğan’s years-long performance as president during the television program, Kabaş said, quoting a Circassian proverb, “When an [ox] enters a palace, it doesn’t become a king. [However], that palace becomes a barn.”

Kabaş also posted the proverb on Twitter, which prompted an investigation into her on charges of insulting the president.

A wheelchair-bound woman who has been suffering from multiple sclerosis for 14 years was sent to prison after a top appeals court upheld a sentence handed down to her due to her affiliation with the faith-based Gülen movement, according to an opposition lawmaker.

“A paralyzed woman is in prison on Women’s Day. Mehtap Şentürk has been suffering from MS for 14 years, her mother used to take care of her, she is 85 percent disabled and has to wear diapers,” Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy and human rights activist Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu tweeted.

Şentürk, a science teacher, was sent to Sincan Prison in Ankara last week after the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a prison sentence of seven years on charges of terrorist organization membership due to her links to the Gülen movement.

The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and labels it a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

Gergerlioğlu said he went to Sincan Prison on Tuesday to speak to the prison administration about the woman’s condition but that the warden refused to see him.

Gergerlioğlu said Şentürk’s husband is also in prison due to a Gülen-linked trial.

There are currently thousands of women, some with their children, in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed due to their affiliation with the Gülen movement. They are accused of or convicted of terrorism for such acts as using the ByLock smartphone app, which is believed to be a secret tool of communication among followers of the movement, depositing money at a Gülen-linked bank, sending their children to Gülen-linked schools or simply for attending religious talks organized by the movement.

These women say their imprisonment is politically motivated and that they have nothing to do with terrorism while complaining that they are subjected to various rights violations in jail.

There have even been cases when women arrested on Gülen links died in jail after they were denied critical medication by the prison authorities or when women were sent to jail immediately after delivery with their newborns, contrary to the law.

Turkey’s women rights organizations and opposition parties are criticized for turning a blind eye to the plight of these women and not raising their voices against their imprisonment on what many say are politically motivated charges.

Turkey’s 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 an abortive putsch on July 15, 2016.

Adem Erdoğdu, 52, who was arrested for links to the faith-based Gülen movement despite suffering from chronic heart disease, has contracted COVID-19 for a second time in prison, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing the Bold Medya news website.

Erdoğdu’s wife, Birsen Erdoğdu, said her husband had been fitted with a pacemaker only two weeks ago. Upon his return to prison he was taken to a quarantine cell before being allowed in his normal cell. While in the quarantine cell, Erdoğdu tested positive for the virus.

Birsen Erdoğdu criticized authorities for not releasing her chronically ill husband despite the ongoing pandemic.

Erdoğdu worked for a private high school linked to the movement in northwestern Sakarya province. He was arrested in 2018 and sent to a prison in the same city. Erdoğdu was reportedly beaten by the police in front of his family when he was detained.

Erdoğdu was accused of having an account at the now-closed Bank Asya, one of Turkey’s largest commercial banks at the time, and for using the ByLock encrypted messaging app. The app was widely available in Apple’s App Store and Google Play, but the government claims it was exclusively used by followers of the movement and considers it evidence of terrorist activity. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Human rights activists and opposition politicians have frequently criticized authorities for not releasing critically ill prisoners so they can seek proper treatment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Züleyha Gülüm, a deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said Turkish prisons were turning into scenes of massacre and that political prisoners were the most disadvantaged.

According to the Human Rights Association (İHD), as of June 2020 there were more than 1,605 sick inmates in Turkish prisons, approximately 600 of whom were critically ill. Although most of the seriously ill patients had forensic and medical reports deeming them unfit to remain in prison, they were not released. Authorities refuse to free 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.