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Four hundred fifteen people were tortured in prisons and detention centers in Turkey and 17 were abducted in the first 11 months of 2021, Turkish Minute reported, citing a report released by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) and the Human Rights Association (İHD).

According to TİHV data, 3,540 people, including 28 minors, were also subjected to ill-treatment as a result of security force intervention in peaceful protests and gatherings this year, while the İHD data showed the same figure to be 3,671.

Among the 17 people who were abducted in 2021, 16 were released on the same day while one was released after five days, the report said, adding that 11 of them were subjected to torture or ill-treatment.

The human rights report pointed out the disappearance of Yusuf Bilge Tunç in broad daylight on August 8, 2019, saying he has not been heard from since.

Tunç’s family has consistently complained about the lack of cooperation from officials to find him after his wife unearthed details indicating that Tunç had been abducted.

According to the report, at least 22 people died behind bars due to negligence, suicide, illness or violence, and 290 women died as a result of domestic violence in the first 11 months of 2021, while 1,853 workers were killed in workplace accidents in Turkey in the first 10 months of the year.

A total of 119 people, including 36 security officers, 80 militants and three civilians, died in armed conflict in the country this year, and security forces killed nine people in raids and by firing arbitrarily into a crowd on the pretext that they did not obey an order to stop, the report also showed.

Six people, including four children, were killed in accidents involving armored security vehicles in the country; nine people died as a result of racist or hate attacks; and 55.961 people, including 180 healthcare workers, died of COVID-19 in 2021, the organizations noted.

The report further showed that investigations were launched into 36 members of the press, 45 journalists were detained and two were arrested this year, with 59 currently behind bars.

Turkish courts blocked access to at least 945 online news articles and 53 websites belonging to seven media outlets, at least 41 social media posts and five social media accounts, the organizations further stated.

Out of 14 people, including one minor, who were detained for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2021, seven were arrested while one was placed under judicial supervision. SCF

A Turkish court has handed down a suspended sentence to a former noncommissioned officer standing trial for raping İpek Er, an 18-year-old Kurdish woman who later committed suicide, Turkish Minute reported on Friday.

In the sixth and final hearing of his trial on Friday, former soldier Musa Orhan was given a suspended sentence of 10 years by the Siirt 1st High Criminal Court on conviction of sexual assault.

Since the sentence was suspended, Orhan wasn’t arrested but was rather placed under judicial supervision, Turkish media reports said.

Human Rights Association (İHD) co-chair and lawyer Eren Keskin on Friday condemned Turkish judiciary for letting Orhan walk free.

“İpek Er ended her life after the sexual assault she experienced. The attacker is free and most likely will flee in order to not ‘serve’ the sentence he was given. This is a place where a uniform and a wolf sign are held as ‘superior’ to both domestic and international law,” Keskin tweeted, referring to a photo of Orhan released by the Turkish media showing him making a hand sign of the Grey Wolves, representing a wolf’s head.

The Grey Wolves are seen as the militant wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and their ideology is mainly based on Turkish nationalism. Therefore, Kurds and other minorities in Turkey have occasionally been their targets.

The ordeal of Er, a Kurdish woman who died in a hospital on August 18, 2020, 33 days after she tried to take her own life, was discovered in a letter she wrote on July 16, 2020, before her suicide attempt. She said in the letter that she was abducted and raped by Orhan for 20 days in the southeastern city of Batman.

Orhan was detained the following day after the rape allegation was confirmed by a report from the Council of Forensic Medicine but was later released under judicial supervision.

Many women’s associations in Turkey criticized the decision, saying the judicial system was “protecting a rapist” by allowing him to walk free.

In early October popular Turkish actress Ezgi Mola was convicted on insult charges and ordered to pay a fine of TL 5,200 ($377) for protesting Orhan’s release in a tweet in August 2020.

“Drown in the conscience that let you release this rapist low-life,” Mola had tweeted, after the former soldier was released pending trial after six days behind bars, despite a forensics report confirming that he raped Er.

Femicides and violence against women are serious problems in Turkey, where women are killed, raped or beaten every day. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s policies that protect men by granting them impunity is the main cause of the situation, critics say.

In late May Minister of Family and Social Services Derya Yanık attracted widespread criticism due to remarks suggesting that the country has experienced “tolerable levels” of domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic while speaking to members of a committee investigating violence against women.

Early in 2020 President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sparked outrage in Turkey and the international community after he pulled the country out of the Council of Europe 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. SCF

Cevheri Güven-Turkishminute

The Greek police rescued 17 Turkish asylum seekers, including five children and four women, who crossed the Evros River from Turkey to Greece and were in danger of freezing to death, after the group made urgent calls for help.

Following the pleas of the migrants, which circulated on social media and were amplified by Turkish journalists in exile, the stranded group shared a video showing a boat steered by Greek officers and said they were being rescued.

Hasan Bal, one of the asylum seekers who fled to Greece due to the politically motivated cases against them, told Turkish Minute that the weather was freezing cold and that the condition of those in the group, especially the children, was terrible.

Bal also said some migrants fell into the water and got drenched while crossing the river and therefore were more affected by the cold, and that they were about to run out of food.

Stating that there were teachers, engineers and public servants in their group, Bal said all of them were facing politically motivated cases in Turkey, except for the children.

“These cases were launched due to [our] links to the Gülen movement. For example, my sentences have been upheld [by higher courts]. We’re facing such penalties as seven years or 15 years [in prison]. We request political asylum in Greece. The children in our group may lose their lives if help doesn’t arrive at once,” he said.

Indicating that they had all the evidence regarding the political cases against them, Bal also asked human rights organizations and rescue teams to come to their aid as soon as possible.

Saying that he had heard about recent pushbacks from Greece, Bal said if they also faced a similar situation, they would be kept behind bars in Turkey for long years, and that they, therefore, would hope for courtesy from the Greek people and government.

Yalçın Toker, the English teacher in the group, also explained their current situation in a video he recorded, calling on Greek authorities to provide them with urgent humanitarian help.

“The weather is terribly cold. We need urgent humanitarian help. We don’t have enough food or water. Two of our group fell into the river, and they’re shivering now. We would be grateful if you could help us, please,” Toker said

Ayşe Özdoğan, who suffers from a rare form of cancer, was released on Friday after spending 56 days in prison despite hospital reports recommending her release, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.

Özdoğan’s sister Emine Erdem shared the news on Twitter. “I would like to thank everyone who worked to achieve this,” she said. “I am too excited to list everybody.”

Özdoğan, 34, a former teacher, was handed down a nine-year, four-month sentence for alleged links to the Gülen movement. An appeals court on June 11 upheld her sentence despite severe health problems.

In a controversial decision, the İstanbul Council of Forensic Medicine stated on October 1 that Özdoğan was fit to remain in prison and that there was no sign of metastasis of the cancer in her body, despite a health report from Akdeniz University Hospital in Antalya saying she was not fit to stay in prison.

Özdoğan was sent to prison on October 2 after authorities refused to postpone the execution of her sentence. The move drew criticism from human rights activists, doctors, opposition politicians, journalists and social media users.

Özdoğan’s release came after a second report from the same hospital saying she was unfit to remain in prison.

Özdoğan and her husband were detained on April 8, 2019 for alleged links to the movement, but she was released due to her son’s heart condition. Özdoğan developed cancer seven months later and underwent an operation on November 12, 2019. She was arrested shortly thereafter, convicted and sentenced.

When she was released pending appeal on December 27, 2019, it was already too late for her second surgery, however, as the cancer had spread.

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.