Turkish police detained a professor, his wife and a lawyer on Tuesday in Edirne province as they were allegedly trying to escape from the persecution of Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, to Greece.
According to a report by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, A.K., who is a professor dismissed from the Faculty of Medicine at Malatya’s İnönü University, his wife A.B.K. and lawyer A.E.T. were detained by police. It was claimed that three detainees have been wanted due to their alleged use of ByLock mobile phone messaging application. Two people allegedly organised the trip were also detained.
Turkish authorities believe ByLock is a communication tool among alleged followers of the Gülen movement. Tens of thousands of people, including civil servants, police officers, soldiers, businessmen and even housewives, have either been dismissed or arrested for using ByLock since a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
Meanwhile, 50 people, who were detained off the northern Cyprus on Saturday over their alleged links to the Gülen movement as they were trying to illegally cross to Greek island Rodos, were received by Turkish Interpol officials on Monday.
According to a statement, the ministry said the detained people were received by officials of the Turkish Security Directorate’s Interpol Department for legal proceedings. The detainees were caught on Saturday while trying to illegally cross to the Greek island of Rhodes from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the statement said. Among the people rounded up were ex-soldiers, teachers, and a carpenter.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey have been the subject of legal proceedings in the last two years on charges of membership in the Gülen movement since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, a Turkish Justice Ministry official told a symposium on July 19, 2018.
“Legal proceedings have been carried out against 445,000 members of this organisation,” Turkey’s pro-government Islamist news agency İLKHA quoted Turkish Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Faruk Aydıner as saying.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed about 170,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15, 2016. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The post A professor and two people detained as trying to flee from persecution in Turkey appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/a-professor-and-two-people-detained-as-trying-to-flee-from-persecution-in-turkey/
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