Ankara orders arrest of scores

Hunger strikers detained on terror charges

ISTANBUL, May 24, (Agencies): Turkish authorities ordered the detention of 139 staff from Ankara municipalities and two ministries in an investigation targeting supporters of the US-based cleric accused of being behind last July’s failed coup, CNN Turk said on Wednesday.

Since the attempted putsch, authorities have jailed pending trial 50,000 people and sacked or suspended 150,000 from a wide range of professions including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links to what the government calls terrorist organisations.

Detention warrants on Wednesday were issued for 60 staff at the Ankara city council, 19 at district councils, 30 staff at the development ministry and 30 at the education ministry, broadcaster CNN Turk said.

The cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for almost 20 years, has denied involvement in the putsch.

Ankara accuses Gulen, a former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan, of infiltrating Turkish institutions, including the judiciary, police and military in a decades-long campaign. Government critics say the post-coup crackdown has been used to crush dissent.

State-run Anadolu news agency said the municipality staff, some of whom had previously been dismissed from their jobs, were found to have used ByLock, an encrypted messaging app the government says was used by Gulen’s followers.

Meanwhile, a Turkish court has placed under arrest on terror charges an academic and a teacher who have been on a long hunger strike to protest against their dismissal in a purge after last year’s failed coup, reports said.

Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca were remanded in custody ahead of trial by an Ankara court late Tuesday on charges of “membership of a terror organisation”, the NTV and CNN-Turk channels said. They had initially been detained on Monday.

Both were sacked under the state of emergency imposed after the July 15 attempted coup seeking to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that has seen tens of thousands lose their jobs.

Former primary school teacher Ozakca and academic Gulmen began their hunger strike two-and-a-half months ago and have been surviving on water alone.

Hearing

In a video published as they attended their court hearing, the pair said they were determined to continue their struggle.

“We will continue our fight until we are victorious,” said Ozakca.

“For us, the resistance will continue in prison. I invite everyone to continue the resistance outside,” said Gulmen.

A protest in their support Tuesday afternoon in Ankara was violently dispersed by the police, with several people arrested.

Some reports indicated they were accused of membership of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), an outlawed Marxist group.

Over 100,000 people from the public sector including judges, teachers, doctors and members of the armed forces have been dismissed in a series of purges criticised by the West and human rights activists.

Amnesty International criticised the “arbitrary dismissals” in a report released Monday, calling on the Turkish government to set up a “prompt and effective appeal mechanism” for those dismissed.

Meanwhile, a French photographer detained two weeks ago by Turkish police while on assignment in the mainly Kurdish southeast has begun a hunger strike to protest against his detention, a press activism group said on Wednesday, citing his lawyer.

Istanbul-based freelance journalist Mathias Depardon was taken into custody by police in Batman province on May 8 and has been held at a deportation centre in the border province of Gaziantep, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement.

Citing Depardon’s lawyer, RSF said he started the hunger strike on Sunday. “The ordeal to which Matthias Depardon is being subjected is unacceptable and has lasted for too long,” said Johann Birr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

A Turkish official said Depardon “had not acted within the boundaries of journalistic principles,” without elaborating further or commenting on the report of the hunger strike.

In previous statements, RSF had cited police saying Depardon was arrested on suspicion of publishing “terrorist propaganda”, referring to his photographs in French media of militants from Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seen as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Since last year’s abortive putsch, Turkish authorities have shut more than 130 media outlets, raising concerns about media freedom in a country that aspires to join the European Union.