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Esra Terzioğlu, the wife of a jailed TV director who has serious health problems, has asked for help from officials in a video posted on social media, requesting his immediate release from prison, according to the tr724 news website.

Director Fatih Terzioğlu, who has been incarcerated in İstanbul’s Silivri prison for 21 months, was sentenced to six years, three months for membership in the Gülen movement, which is accused of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt. The movement strongly denies any involvement.

Terzioğlu had worked for now-closed Samanyolu TV, a Gülen-affiliated television network in Turkey.

His wife said on Wednesday that Terzioğlu has lost a significant amount of weight and was unable to speak during a prison visit last week.

Terzioğlu was taken to a hospital by the prison administration, but his wife said the officials gave her incorrect information about the clinical procedures he underwent.

“They said he had an MRI for his lungs, but I could clearly see from the e-government app that it was not true. They also said he tested negative for the coronavirus, but on the app there was no mention of a coronavirus test,” she said.

The e-government application provides reports on health procedures and their results for citizens.

His wife added that the risk of cancer seemed quite high after a blood test and the discovery of a nodule on his liver.turkishminute

Qantas says it will cut 6,000 jobs and continue to stand down 15,000 employees as part of its recovery plan from the COVID pandemic.

Qantas says it will cut at least 6,000 jobs across all parts of the business and continue to stand down 15,000 employees as part of its plan to recover from the impact of the COVID pandemic.

Australia’s flag carrier also said it will ground at least 100 aircraft for up to 12 months and reduce $15 billion in costs over the next three years.

Qantas’ domestic capacity is currently running at about 15 per cent of its pre-coronavirus levels, following an easing in social and travel restrictions.

The majority of staff stood down are associated with the airline’s international services.

“We have to position ourselves for several years where revenues will be much lower. And that means becoming a smaller airline in the short term,” Mr Joyce said.

“This is something that weighs heavily on all of us. But the collapse of billions of dollars in revenue leaves us little choice if we are to save as many jobs as possible, long term.”

“Before Qantas slashes thousands of workers’ jobs … it should be lobbying the federal government for an extension to JobKeeper and financial support to allow the airline to weather the crisis,” TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said.

“It is because of government restrictions that aviation was grounded to a halt, yet the assistance and assurances have been paltry.”

“Qantas is now making hasty decisions to slash jobs which will affect thousands of families.”

She also took aim at Mr Morrison for not extending JobKeeper payments to all aviation workers.

Mr Joyce said the airline is having “good discussions” with the federal government about extending the length of JobKeeper support for its workers.

“Despite the hard choices we’re making today, we’re fundamentally optimistic about the future. Almost two-thirds of our pre-crisis earnings came from the domestic market, which is likely to recover fastest.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison extended his “deepest regrets” to those affected by the Qantas announcement on Thursday and said the aviation sector would need continued support.

“We are just working through the best way to target and deliver that support,” he told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

He said “JobKeeper or other measures” could be used to help the sector in the future.

Mr Joyce defended the decision to sack workers while JobKeeper is under review, saying employees needed clarity.

“The prime minister and treasurer have said there are some industries that are more affected than others,” Mr Joyce said.

The Qantas chief has been talking to state governments about reopening borders for domestic travel, which remains heavily curtailed amid restrictions.

He’s also hopeful the border with New Zealand can open before July next year, but understood that would depend on health advice.

“We are very keen for the borders to be open… we will continue to talk to the states.”

Qantas shares have been placed in a trading halt, with the company to raise $1.9 billion through a shares sale.

This will comprise of a $1.4 billion institutional placement and another $500 million to be raised through a share purchase plan for retail investors.

The aviation industry has been one of the hardest hit by COVID-19, with passenger demand plunging as travel restrictions were put in place.

The federal government has poured more than $1.2 billion in assistance to the sector to underwrite key air routes between capital cities and regional centres.  sbs

The Adana Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday issued detention warrants for 63 suspects as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Video footage showing the counterterrorism police with submachine guns raiding a suspect’s house in Adana sparked outrage on social media. The police broke the door of the residence, the footage showed.

The suspects are accused of providing financial assistance to the relatives of alleged Gülen followers who were in jail.

The Turkish government considers the followers of the movement as “terrorists,” and has been conducting a large-scale crackdown targeting them.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government accuse the Gülen movement of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu in March 2019 reported that more than half a million people had been detained by police in the post-coup crackdown over alleged Gülen links.

Meanwhile, police detained 27 more suspects in Sivas, Van, Kayseri and Şanlıurfa provinces, according to other reports.

A Turkish court ruled on Wednesday for the release of three journalists imprisoned over a report on the funeral of a Turkish intelligence officer killed in war-torn Libya, news site Artı Gerçek reported.

Yeni Yaşam’s managing editor Ferhat Çelik, his editor Aydın Keser and OdaTV editor Barış Terkoğlu were released from police custody on the first day of a trial of seven journalists accused of violating state intelligence laws.

Six of the journalist have been in pretrial detention since March.

The journalists separately face up to 19 years in prison on two separate charges, violating Article 329 of the Turkish Penal Code on the “Disclosure of Information Relating to the Security and Political Interests of the State,” and Article 27 of the Law on MİT, which states that “those who obtain documents and information concerning the MİT’s duties and operations shall be sentenced.”

The Istanbul court ruled the other journalists in the case – OdaTV’s Barış Pehlivan and Hülya Kılınç and Yeniçağ newspaper’s Murat Ağırel – to remain behind bars, Artı Gerçek said.

In his statement to the Istanbul court, Çelik said 95 percent of Turkey’s media was under state control, and he was only doing his job as a journalist.

“The MİT law ties the hands of journalists. How can I know who is a member of MİT and who isn’t head of time?’’ Artı Gerçek news site quoted Çelik as saying.

The journalists were put on trial despite the MİT officer’s identity having already been made public by a member of the opposition Good Party in February.

Yeniçağ columnist Ağırel in his court statement accused Turkish authorities of leaking confidential information about his legal case, thereby creating a public misconception.

Ağırel also questioned the charges against him.

“The first person to announce that MİT was operating in Libya was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,’’ he said.

“So does this mean that president has committed a crime according to law No. 2937 (the MİT law)? Is there a clause in the law that exempts the president?’’ the columnist said.

Deputies from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, journalists, heads of NGOs and members of press unions were present for Wednesday’s trial.

Esra Yurt, a Turkish woman who was detained as part of an investigation into Turkey’s Gulen group, said in an interview that she had her feet burned with acid in police custody at the notorious Ankara Anti-Terror Branch (TEM).

Speaking to Turkish journalist Sevinç Özarslan in an exclusive interview on Friday, Yurt said she was detained by Turkish police in February 2017 over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, which the Turkish gov’t accuses of masterminding a coup attempt in July 15, 2016.

Spending some five days in custody in Ankara, the woman said that a police officer poured acid on her feet to force her to confess “membership in the group.”

“[The officer] asked us to put out either our hands or feet. I put out my feet. She rised my left foot and poured some liquid on it. It was very painful. I later learned that it was some sort of an acid. Some people had it on their hands, some others had it on their feet. They then send us back to our holding cell,” the woman said in the interview.

Yurt was reportedly released on pending trial after the 5-day-long custody. She later fled Turkey to seek asylum in a European country.

Resim öğretmeni Hatice Dönmez’in kaleminden Esra Yurt’un Ankara TEM’de yaşadığı işlence… Unutmayın, unutturmayın.

İşkence insanlık suçudur. https://t.co/4jcR5b6Fu7

— Sevinç Özarslan (@sevincozarslan) May 29, 2020

An investigation has been launched into a pro-government journalist who admitted to keeping a list of dissidents whom he claims he would kill in the event of a military coup, the Turkish media reported.

There has been an ongoing debate in the Turkish media over the prospect of a coup attempt, sparked after remarks made by prominent opposition official Canan Kaftancıoğlu suggesting that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s downfall was near.

Fatih Tezcan, a pro-Erdoğan journalist known for his provocative remarks, has joined the debate with threatening words.

“You say we’ll overthrow and execute Erdoğan. Then how will you save your wives and children from us? For every drop of Erdoğan’s blood, tons of blood would be spilled in this country,” Tezcan said in a YouTube video on Sunday.

Last week, the comments of another pro-Erdoğan writer, Sevda Noyan, sent shock waves across Turkey as she said she has a list of neighbors and would kill those who are anti-government or pro-coup in the event of a new coup attempt in the country.

Meanwhile, President Erdoğan and his close circle launched a social media campaign last week in response to comments about the instigation of a coup.

Erdoğan’s lawyer on May 6 filed a criminal complaint against journalist Ragıp Zarakolu for a column he wrote, accusing him of “instigating a military coup d’état,”

Zarakolu’s column, titled “No escape from ill fate,” was published in the Evrensel newspaper and on the Artı Gerçek news website last Tuesday, drawing comparisons between Erdoğan and former Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, who was hanged by a military junta after a takeover in 1960.

As a 2016 coup attempt played into the hands of Erdoğan in eliminating dissidents in state jobs and jailing thousands of government critics, observers are pointing to the dangers of “coup talk.”

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), responded to the government’s anti-coup remarks, saying that the opposition only had civilian, not military, backing.

“This is a false agenda. [The real agenda is that the government] can no longer lead the country. Millions of people are jobless,” he said on a TV show last week.

An angry mob of Turkish nationalists late on Sunday arrived at the grave of İbrahim Gökçek, a member of the Grup Yorum band who died after a 322-day hunger strike, threatening to vandalize the grave and burn the body of the musician.

“We don’t want the grave of a terrorist,” a man from the group said according to video footage.

Gökçek was accused of membership in a left-wing terrorist group along with other Grup Yorum musicians.

The band’s concerts are banned by the Turkish government, and a space owned by the band for cultural activities has been raided almost regularly by the police.

Helin Bölek, another group member, also died due to a hunger strike to protest the government’s crackdown on them.

Following Gökçek’s death, a youth branch official from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in Kayseri, the musician’s hometown, announced that he would burn the body if Turkish officials allowed the burial of Gökçek in the city.

The MHP expelled the official immediately after he released his statement.

“The police will be here for a while. Then they’ll leave. And when they do, we’ll exhume the body and burn it,” a man said in the footage.