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On July 1st, 2018, Zeki Güven, the former intelligence chief of the Ankara Police Department who was arrested by a Turkish court in May as part of the Turkish government’s massive post-coup witch hunt targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement, was found dead in his bed at Sincan No 1 F Type Prison. According to the official statement, Zeki Güven allegedly died from a heart attack; however, given the previous incidents and deaths in Turkish prisons, his death is being viewed as suspicious. Other suspicious deaths in the prison have been listed as ‘died due to heart attack’. None of them received detailed autopsies from independent institutions. Nonetheless, Güven did not have any known medical condition. His friends have noted that he never smoked and took well care of his body. Thus, Güven, who went to prison in perfect health died in prison because of a “heart attack” right…

Recent reports from the Journalist and Writers Foundation in Turkey and the Stockholm Center for Freedom have estimated the number of women in Turkish prisons is a staggering 17,000 along with over 660 children. Official records indicate that 23 percent of these children are infants less than a year old. Dr. Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society (a British foreign policy think tank) said “prison is no place for children in any civilized country”. These reports have questioned the basis for the detainment and imprisonment of these women, as well as the timing of their arrests, in some cases shortly after giving birth. Many of these women have been held without charges being pressed and without access to legal representation, and in some cases, access to their family. Reports from within Turkey have shown images of security officials waiting outside hospital rooms for mothers to be discharged…

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Council has called on the Turkish government to immediately release Mesut Kaçmaz and Meral Kaçmaz, a couple that was abducted from their home after midnight in Lahore on September 27, 2017 and deported illegally by the Pakistani government to Turkey just two days before their scheduled appearance before a Pakistani court. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has released its 16-page opinion concerning Mesut Kaçmaz and Meral Kaçmaz and their two daughters. The UN body called on Turkey to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mesut Kaçmaz, Meral Kaçmaz and the two minors without delay and bring them into conformity with the relevant international norms, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UN body also called on the government of Pakistan and…

Citing the state of emergency it has declared after the coup attempt in July 2016, the AKP government has further exacerbated its heavy human rights violations following the corruption operations of December 17/25 and the June 7th general elections. Cases of abduction have lately been added to widespread torture, deaths in custody, and extrajudicial killings. Teachers, doctors, businessmen, mothers, and children, who legally work and live in different countries away and disconnected from the unrest in Turkey, are abducted by paramilitary agents through clandestine plots and unlawfully handed over to the Turkish government. Pakistan was one of the places where kidnappings were carried out as a part of these global criminal activities conducted by the members of the Turkish intelligence and consular staff upon the orders of President Erdogan. Mesut Kaçmaz, the former director of the Pak-Turk schools, was abducted from his home in Lahore with his family early in…

Animatic story of Turkish teacher Gokhan Acikkollu who was tortured to death under police custody in Turkey. Video prepared by Huddled Masses.  

May 23, 2018 | Chicago On May 23,2018, art work submitted to Advocates of Silenced Turkey’s Human Rights Violation in Turkey Art Contest 2018 were exhibited in Toronto, Canada. Check out the art work: https://oldwebsite09012025.silencedturkey.org/art-contest-2018 https://www.instagram.com/silencedturkey/  

Isa Kara, 54-year-old, has worked 34 years as a teacher and director of Ministry of National Education’s Manisa provincial directorate. He was fired from his job with a decree issued by the Turkish government after the alleged coup attempt in July 2016. Kara was imprisoned in October 2016 on coup charges. Despite his illnesses, he was held in pre-trial detention for 29 days and later transferred to Manisa prison. Kara is partly paralyzed and suffers from serious heart problems. Kara’s doctor had indicated that he needs to stay away from stress due to his heart problem. In an e-mail, it is claimed that two months before he was put in pre-trial detention, he had his first Angiogram. On April 12, 2018, he was transferred by the prison management to İzmir Katip Çelebi University Hospital where he had his second Angiogram. After spending 45 days in the hospital, he was sent…

Mustafa Ceyhan is a businessman from Turkey who resides in Georgia with his family under UN protection. He visited Azerbaijan from Batumi (Georgia) on 4/20/2017 for a business trip. Once he entered Azerbaijan, he was unjustly arrested on charges of illegally crossing the border to Azerbaijan. On April 26th, Ceyhan was brought before court in Baku. The trial date was rescheduled to an earlier date, and happened without a notice to his lawyers. His lawyer, Tural Emenov and another lawyer appointed by the United Nation found out about the trial and accompanied him. The judge acquitted him from charges pressed against him. Ceyhan’s wife, Meryem Ceyhan indicated that as Ceyhan was leaving the court around 12:00 PM, he was abducted in front of the courthouse by a group of eight men in a black Range Rover with black tinted windows. His whereabouts are unknown since then. His family and friends…

For the last two years, starting from the false flag coup attempt on July 15, 2016, almost entire democratic and fundemental human rights have been suspended in Turkey. Erdogan Government has been completely out of control in terms of accessing to basic human rights, equality and respect for human dignity, in the sense that the western civilization stipulates, and in this sense it has completely broken it’s ties with the modern world, as is clearly stated in other reports prepared by many internationally recognized human rights institutions such as on October 2017, the Human Rights Watch published a report about kidnapping and torture about Turkey (In Custody Police Torture and Abductions in Turkey), then in March 20 2018 United Nations published a report on experienced widespread human rights violations during the state of emergency in Turkey (Turkey: UN report details extensive human rights violations during protracted state of emergency) Amnesty…

The National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghan intelligence agency, abducted four teachers including one Afghan and three Turkish nationals from one of the schools run by the Afghan Turk CAG Educational NGO (ATCE) on 12 December 2017. While three Turkish nationals and one Afghan teacher were released, two Turkish nationals are still under house arrest and face possible deportation to Turkey. The ATCE was founded by Gulen inspired Turkish businessmen and teachers and has been running several schools in different cities of Afghanistan since 1995. Despite all the difficulties in the region, the ATCE has continued to maintain its services believing that education is the only way to overcome those difficulties. Former Deputy Minister of Education, Sediq Patman classified the situation as “politically motivated and unethical.” Former NDS chief has also defined the move as unprecedented in recent years, also as a shameful act for the government. According to former…