Turkey: Arbitrary Arrests, Kidnappings, Torture in Prison

by Uzay Bulut • August 1, 2021 at 5:00 am

"Because my surgery was delayed while I was in prison, my left upper tooth, left palate, cheekbone and lymph nodes were removed. The bottom of my left chin is now empty. 20 cms of bone was taken from my leg and placed on my face... According to the latest MRI I had, the tumor has spread to the back of my eye." — Ayşe Özdoğan, whose so-called crime is to have worked at a dormitory affiliated with the Gülen movement. She was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for being "a member of a terrorist organization".
[T]orture and ill-treatment, as well as a lack of medical care for sick prisoners, are widespread in Turkish jails.... Those rooms are arranged in such a way that there are no security cameras there and no torture detection can be made.
After the prisoners filed a criminal complaint about being beaten, a disciplinary investigation was launched against the prisoners for insulting the officer and insulting the president rather than opening an investigation against the perpetrators
Meanwhile, those who advocate for the rights of the victims are arrested.
In February, the US State Department announced that President Joe Biden is committed to a foreign policy "that is centered on the defense of democracy and the protection of human rights." Given the horrifying scale of destruction of human rights of citizens of Turkey, is it not the time for the US government finally to make human rights a priority in its dealings there?

Torture and ill-treatment, as well as a lack of medical care for sick prisoners, are widespread in Turkish jails. Meanwhile, those who advocate for the rights of the victims are arrested. Given the horrifying scale of destruction of human rights of citizens of Turkey, is it not the time for the US government finally to make human rights a priority in its dealings there? (Image source: iStock)

Turkey's government continues the systematic targeting and persecution of those perceived as "enemies" of the government.

Ayşe Özdoğan, suffering from stage-4 maxillary sinus cancer and one of the tens of thousands of Turkey's victims, was convicted of being a supporter of a movement led by Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric self-exiled to Pennsylvania. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls Gülen's movement a "terrorist organization" and accuses it of carrying out an attempted coup d'état in 2016.

According to the court ruling, Özdoğan's so-called crime is to have worked at a dormitory affiliated with the Gülen movement. She was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for being "a member of a terrorist organization". Her husband, a teacher, was dismissed from his job and imprisoned for the same alleged crime. Their 8-year-old son suffers from a congenital heart defect.

Continue Reading Article

Iran and the Divisive Rule of the Mullah

by Amir Taheri • August 1, 2021 at 4:00 am

Ayatollah Khomeini said that the regime he planned to install in Iran would have one guideline: "Doing the opposite of what the cursed Shah did."
[Khomeini's] position started by dividing Iranians into Muslims and non-Muslims. He then divided them further into Shiites and Sunnis. He went on to divide the Shiites into twelvers and others.
But, here, too, Khomeinists might be on the wrong side of history. The ongoing protests seems to be reviving the national unity and a sense of Iranian-ness fostered over the past centuries, thus singling out the Khomeinist ideology as the common enemy of the nation.

While the Shah tried to forge a single, unifying identity, Khomeini based his strategy on dividing Iranians. That position started by dividing Iranians into Muslims and non-Muslims. He then divided them further into Shiites and Sunnis. He went on to divide the Shiites into twelvers and others. (Image source: iStock)

In an "audience" granted to a number of anti-Shah intellectuals just weeks after seizing power, Ayatollah Khomeini said that the regime he planned to install in Iran would have one guideline: "Doing the opposite of what the cursed Shah did." For the past four decades he and his successors have remained faithful to that promise and have taken double care to prove that.

The Shah wanted to keep Iran out of war and military conflict and succeeded in doing so for more than three decades, at times by taking painful decisions. Khomeini and his successor led Iran into an eight-year long war with Iraq plus a series of military involvements in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Continue Reading Article