Turkish police detained 11 anti-ISIL protesters in western Turkey İZMİR

March 11, 2015 By administrator

Eleven people were detained in the western Turkish city of İzmir on March 11 while commemorating Ivana Hoffman, the first female western fighter who died while fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.

Demonstrators gathered in the Alsancak neighborhood to erect a tent in memory of Ivana Hoffman, a 19-year-old German citizen fighting with Syrian Kurdish militiamen who was killed in northeastern Syria on March 7. Police asked the group to disperse, saying the demonstration was unwarranted, before detaining 11 people and removing the tent and posters, Doğan News Agency reported.

In a separate incident in the city, four university students have been detained for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan while planting trees at Ege University. The detentions came after police reviewed the security camera footage of the event and the four students were detained while leaving the school.

Scores of people in Turkey have been detained or have testified for “insulting” Erdoğan over the past few months. Defendants include prominent journalist Can Dündar, former Miss Turkey Merve Büyüksaraç, singer-turned-Twitter-activist Atilla Taş, and several teenagers.

Source: hurriyet daily news

Turkey Former police intel chief detained as key figure in Dink murder

February 26, 2015 By administrator

By Toygun Atilla ISTANBUL

Ramazan Akyürek, high-ranking Turkish police chief

A high-ranking Turkish police chief has been detained in Ankara as part of the investigation into the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Ramazan Akyürek, who was detained in Ankara on Feb. 26, had served as the head of the police in the Black Sea province of Trabzon between December 2003 and May 2006. He then served as the head of Police Intelligence between May 2006 and October 2009. Dink was murdered in January 2007.

Akyürek was removed from his position right after the Dec. 17, 2013, corruption and graft operation, along with hundreds of other senior police officers allegedly linked to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, the government’s ally-turned-nemesis. An Ankara court had rejected Akyürek’s dismissal in January 2014.

The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office initially aborted an ongoing probe into the alleged negligence of nine public servants, but the 8th Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district cancelled the decision, reopening the probe on June 6, 2014.

Akyürek was detained after all the criminal files regarding the Dink murder were combined into a single probe in Istanbul, as instructed by Istanbul Prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü.

In his testimony in October 2014, Akyürek had placed the blame of the murder on the Istanbul Police Director, while using the phrases “I don’t remember” and “I don’t know” a total of 27 times in response to the prosecutor’s questions.

Under Turkish law, the crime described as “committing a premeditated murder through an act of negligence” has the penalty of a maximum 20 to 25-year prison sentence.

Previously, three high-ranking police officials, Muhittin Zenit, Özkan Mumcu and Ercan Demir, had been arrested by the court in the Dink case.

Turkish Marx’ detained for insulting Erdoğan

February 19, 2015 By administrator

Turkish comedian Director and actor Haldun Açıksözlü.

A Turkish comedian has been detained for not paying compensation to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which he was ordered to pay after making a statement that the court deemed insulting, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Director and actor Haldun Açıksözlü, who was known for his political stand-up comedy show “Laz Marx,” was ordered to pay 6,000 Turkish Liras in compensation to Erdoğan for insulting the then-prime minister in 2011. The Court of Appeals later upheld the ruling of the local court in the Central Anatolian province of Çorum.

Daily Milliyet reported on Feb. 19 that Açıksözlü was recently detained at the Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul while leaving for Germany. He was then taken to a courthouse in the Bakırköy district, where he said in his testimony that he had not been notified that his appeal had been rejected.

At least four people have been arrested over the past week for insulting Erdoğan, according to Agence France-Presse. All of the arrests are related to nationwide demonstrations on Feb. 13, when thousands boycotted schools and took to the streets to demand a secular education.

Onur Kılıç, 25, the organizer of the demonstration in the western city of İzmir, was arrested on Feb. 13 for anti-Erdoğan slogans referring to corruption allegations against the president and his inner circle.

“I was told that I was arrested for insulting the president. But I haven’t insulted anyone, I was just telling the truth,” Kılıç, who now faces up to four years in prison, was quoted as saying by Doğan News Agency.

Amnesty International on Feb. 16 called for “urgent action” to release Kılıç and called on the government to end all prosecutions and detentions under a law that criminalizes insulting the president. It said such prosecutions “violate the right to freedom of expression.”

Students under arrest

Another protester, Kadir Yavaş, was arrested on the same charge during a protest against Kılıç’s arrest.

Arif Buğra Aydoğan, a 20-year-old student, was arrested on Feb. 16 after police raided and searched his home in the town of Gebze in Kocaeli province, east of Istanbul. He was charged with insulting Erdoğan after chanting slogans against the president during a protest in Gebze.

Another student, 24-year-old Şafak Kurt, was also arrested on Feb. 16 after police found a video showing him shouting “Thief, murderer Erdoğan!” during A protest in the southern province of Manisa.

Meanwhile, a 17-year-old student, identified only by the initials H.U.C., was handed a seven-month suspended sentence in the southern city of Antalya on charges of “insulting a public official” in a 2014 anti-Erdoğan speech.

In a case that has attracted international attention, teenage schoolboy Mehmet Emin Altunses will go on trial on March 6 on charges of insulting the president in a speech in the Central Anatolian city of Konya.

Dutch journalist in Turkey briefly detained on terrorism charges

January 6, 2015 By administrator

A Dutch journalist based in Turkey was temporarily detained on charges of terrorist propaganda on Tuesday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeated his claim that the media is freer in Turkey than anywhere else in the world.

“Terrorism police just searched my house, team of 8 guys. they take me to the station now. charge: ‘propaganda for terrorist organization’,” Frederike Geerdink tweeted on Tuesday.

The journalist was released after she was questioned at the Diyarbakır Police Department’s counterterrorism unit for three hours.

It was not exactly clear why Geerdink was detained. Diyarbakır Bar Association Chairman Tahir Elçi wrote on Twitter that the Dutch journalist was detained because of some of her tweets, which were deemed to be spreading terrorist propaganda.

Geerdink, who moved to Turkey in 2006, has been living in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır since 2012. She is focused on issues related to Kurds, human rights and women’s rights. She has a blog and runs a website .

The journalist’s detention came even as Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders is in Turkey for a visit. Koenders was scheduled to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on Tuesday.

In a message posted on the Dutch Foreign Ministry’s Twitter account, Koenders said he was “shocked” by Geerdink’s arrest. He said he “will personally discuss this here in Ankara with my Turkish colleague.”

The Dutch journalist is the latest to bear the brunt of what critics say is growing pressure on the media in Turkey. On Monday, journalist and television presenter Sedef Kabaş was summoned to testify again after she was detained and later released on Dec. 30 for posting tweets critical of the government’s handling of a major corruption investigation launched on Dec. 17, 2013.

On Dec. 14, Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı was detained along with more than two dozen people on charges of leading and being members of an armed terrorist organization. The detentions sparked a wave of criticism from the US, the European Union and leading international human rights and journalist organizations.

On Tuesday, President Erdoğan once again dismissed criticism that media freedom is at risk in Turkey, reiterating his claim that the media in the country is freer than anywhere else in the world.

“Attack the president or the prime minister in those [other] countries, if you dare. You can’t do it in America, Germany or Russia,” he said during a meeting of ambassadors in Ankara, urging the envoys to confront their foreign colleagues when they raise the issue of press freedom.

Turkey Journalist detained over critical tweet summoned to testify again

January 5, 2015 By administrator

Journalist and television presenter Sedef Kabaş, who was detained and later released on Dec. 30 for posting tweets critical of government’s handling of a major corruption investigation launched on Dec. 17, 2013, said that she was summoned to testify again on Monday.
“Mr. Prosecutor summoned [me] to testify again. The İstanbul Courthouse has been my [popular] venue,” Kabaş tweeted on Monday.
Kabaş had criticized prosecutors for dropping the Dec. 17 corruption and bribery investigation that implicated various high-raking state officials.
Police detained Kabaş after searching her home and seizing her computer early on Dec. 30.

The prosecutors who dropped corruption and bribery charges against 53 suspects — charges that forced four government ministers to step down following the exposure of a graft probe that shook the entire country when it went public on Dec. 17 of last year — filed a criminal complaint against Kabaş over her tweet.
Police raided Kabaş’s home in the Çekmeköy district of İstanbul upon the complaint of the prosecutors and detained her after a search of the house.
Kabaş was referred to a court after her detention with prosecutors seeking her being placed under judicial control. The court ruled to release Kabaş without such a measure.
The journalist continued her critical tweets after her release. “I am not afraid…I am not afraid… The thieves, the corrupt ones, the ones who give and accept bribes, the liars, the hypocrites, those who violate the law MUST BE AFRAID…” she tweeted on Dec. 3

Turkish anchorwoman Sedef Kabaş detained for tweet about corruption

December 30, 2014 By administrator

Journalist and Television presenter Sedef Kabaş and prominent journalist Mehmet Baransu were detained on Tuesday over critical tweets.

Kabaş had criticized prosecutors for dropping a Dec. 17 corruption and bribery investigation that implicated various high-raking state officials and Baransu had made critical comments on the Twitter about an advisor of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Police detained Kabaş after searching her home and seizing her computer, the Turkish media reported on Tuesday.

According to the media reports, the prosecutors who dropped corruption and bribery charges against 53 suspects — charges that forced four government ministers to step down following the exposure of a graft probe that shook the entire country when it went public on Dec. 17 of last year — filed a criminal complaint against Kabaş over her tweet.

Police raided Kabaş’s home in the Çekmeköy district of İstanbul early on Tuesday upon the complaint of the prosecutors and detained her after a search at the house.

Speaking with Radikal daily following her detention, Kabaş stated that she was detained and her home was raided on charges of “targeting individuals involved in the fight against terrorism.” Kabaş said that her iPad, computer and mobile phone were confiscated by the police officers who searched her home. Kabaş also maintained: “I believe in law. I think that there are also people who still believe in law.”

Posting successive tweets on Kabaş’s detention and the search conducted her home, Lawyer Celal Ülgen wrote that Twitter does not share its Twitter users’ IP addresses or details about users’ identities with Turkey, adding: “This is why the IT crimes units found another way to deal with Twitter users. They issue search warrants against those who post tweets and they confiscate their computers and they conduct an investigation over the evidence [found in the computer]. If the tweet that is regarded as crime is not posted via that confiscated computer, there is nothing they can do.”

Baransu detained for tweet about Varank

Journalist Baransu was also detained early Tuesday morning over a tweet he posted critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s advisor Mustafa Varank. Baransu was released pending trial after his testimony at the court that same day. Speaking with Today’s Zaman, Baransu said that he was detained after Varank filed a complaint against him over his tweet.

Baransu, whose revelations have launched massive and sometimes controversial coup trials, was detained on Tuesday morning — for the fourth time.
Baransu has been detained three times before on various charges. He is a leading outspoken journalists and represents a newspaper that has been on the forefront in criticizing the government of President Erdoğan.

Many on social media speculated that Baransu was detained to be questioned about two controversial CDs he provided to prosecutors six years ago — primary evidence of alleged coup plotting by senior Turkish Army officers, who spent years inside prison pending trial. A recent court-sanctioned report by experts concluded that the signatures on the CDs were fake, invalidating their content.

Baransu’s detention came a day after former Army Chief İlker Başbuğ spoke in length about a “plot” to jail him and his colleagues. Başbuğ was condemned to life in prison both in the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer coup trials. Most of the suspects and convicts in these trials were set free this summer after the Constitutional Court ruled that most of the defendants’ rights were violated with unnecessary arrests before conclusive court decisions.

On Monday, Başbuğ also went to an İstanbul courthouse to file a complaint for what he claimed was a “plot” to jail him and his fellow army officers.

Turkey was ranked as “not free” in Freedom House’s latest “media freedom” index, and international press advocacy bodies are increasingly critical of the authorities’ treatment of journalists. Most recently, a major crackdown on media organs critical of the government resulted in the detention of journalist and scriptwriters.

Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı and Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca were taken into custody on Dec. 14 as part of the government-backed police operation. They were detained along with 28 others in the operation.

The detention of Kabaş and Baransu came a few days after President Erdoğan said more journalists will be taken into custody, brushing off criticisms over media freedom.

Speaking at a symposium in Ankara that critical news outlets were not allowed to cover, Erdoğan claimed that “nowhere in the world is the media as free as it is in Turkey” when responding to criticisms in the wake of a government-backed police raid on journalists on Dec. 14.

On Oct. 17, Journalist Aytekin Gezici was also detained in the same manner as Kabaş. Police raided Gezici’s home, detained him and seized various belongings in his house. His lawyer said the journalist was detained and his house searched because of certain tweets the writer had posted.

Gezici was released that same day after being questioned at the police station.

Speaking with the press on his detention, Gezici had said he was asked about 20-30 questions and they were all about the tweets he had posted. He said he was asked why he had tweeted and re-tweeted certain things and why he had starred specific tweets.

Turkey at least 167 detained Students clash at universities,

December 26, 2014 By administrator

Police have detained 167 students at the campuses of Sütçü İmam University in Kahramanmaraş province and Çukurova University in Adana province after clashes erupted between groups of students.

Police also fired tear gas to disperse students clashing at Ankara’s Gazi University.

The clashes at Sütçü İmam University started on Wednesday and continued on Thursday. The dispute was reportedly spurred when a group of students assaulted Yüksel Tekin, a student from the department of economics. Police dispersed the crowd that had formed on Wednesday using tear gas and water cannon.

However, two groups started to fight at the entrance of the department of economics on Thursday, breaking some windows of the building and damaging campus property.

The police examined surveillance camera footage to identify those involved and consequently detained 67 students. The students were taken for procedural medical check-ups before being interrogated by the police. Security measures have been stepped up at the university.

In a separate incident, groups of students fought with each other at Gazi University in Ankara. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse the students.

In Adana, around 400 students at Çukurova University marched to the campus to commemorate the anniversary of the Uludere airstrike that killed 38 people in the Southeast. Another group of students attacked the marchers with bats and stones. Leftist students raided the university library and took some fellow students hostage. Riot police used tear gas against the students before detaining 100 of them. Adana Deputy Police Chief Fahri Aktaş was injured during the incident when a stone struck him in the back of his head, needing medical attention.

At Bingöl University in the southeastern province of Bingöl, police intervened in a demonstration also held to mark the anniversary of the Uludere tragedy. The Bingöl branch of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) delivered a statement to protest police detentions of students in a clash last week, which included its members. After the statement, the group confronted the police trying to disperse them and responded by throwing stones at the officers, who fired tear gas. Some people affected by the tear gas were taken to a hospital.

Thirty-eight people were mistakenly killed near Uludere in Şırnak province by Turkish military jets on Dec. 28, 2011. The victims were traveling back to their villages in Uludere from cities in northern Iraq when Turkish jets bombed the group, with the military later saying that commanders mistook them for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.

19 Turkish fans detained ahead of game in Belgrade

October 25, 2014 By administrator

Source: Beta, Tanjug

BELGRADE — 19 visiting fans of the Turkish football club Besiktas were late on Thursday “brought” to the police in Belgrade, the MUP confirmed for Tanjug.

5 were detained for using pyrotechnics, while others violated public order.

The hooligans demolished several buses belonging to the Belgrade city transportation company GSP, used to transport them from the Hotel Jugoslavija.

They also caused incidents while at the hotel where they set alight flares. According to reports, they behaved “violently” in the buses.

Members of the MUP Gendarmerie unit “managed to calm down the situation” and taken the fans to the Partizan stadium where a portion of the stands was open “just for them, for security reasons.”

The Europa League game between Partizan and Besiktas ended 0:4.

Turkey, Officials say 348 kurds detained in İstanbul in Kobani protests

October 14, 2014 By administrator

A total of 348 people have been detained in the past week during protests that erupted over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) attacks on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, security officials announced on Tuesday. Report Today Zaman

The İstanbul Police Department said in a statement released on Tuesday that 348 people were detained between Oct. 6 and Oct. 13 in İstanbul and that 102 of those detained were minors. The statement said 336 detainees were sent to court for arrest and 10 were arrested.
According to the statement, among the materials seized from the suspects were 111 Molotov cocktails, two unlicensed guns and three pump rifles.

People took to the streets last Tuesday following reports that ISIL was very near to capturing the town of Kobani, which is being defended by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-based affiliate of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Fighting still continues in the Syrian town, which is situated very near the Turkish border.

More than 30 people have been killed during the protests, mainly in southeastern Turkey, while over 350 people — including 139 members of security forces — were injured. Over a thousand protestors have been detained in connection with the protests, which erupted in 35 provinces across Turkey.

Turkish police detained over alleged plot to topple Erdoğan government

September 1, 2014 By administrator

Raids part of crackdown on what president describes as ‘parallel state’ seeking to topple his government

Turkish authorities have detained two dozen police officers in nationwide raids over an alleged plot to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Police conducted early morning raids in 16 cities across Turkey, including Istanbul as well as the western province of Izmir, and detained at least 20 police officers, private NTV television reported.

Among those arrested on Monday was Yakup Saygili, the former chief of the police anti-fraud unit, it added.

It was the fourth such wave of raids since July as the government cracks down on what Erdoğan has described as a “parallel state” within the security forces seeking to topple his government.

Arrest warrants were issued for at least 34 officers accused of a number of offences including illegally eavesdropping on top officials and attempting to overthrow the government.

Since July, dozens of police officers have been arrested and placed in custody on suspicion of forming a criminal organisation and wire-tapping hundreds of people including Erdoğan.

The latest arrests appeared to represent a new offensive against the movement of Erdoğan’s former ally Fethullah Gulen in the wake of a vast corruption scandal that broke late last year, implicating Erdoğan and his inner circle.

Erdogan has long accused followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen of using its sway in Turkey’s police and the judiciary and of concocting the vast corruption scandal.

The allegations were based on recorded phone conversations – purportedly of Erdoğan and his inner circle – whose publication held much of Turkey in thrall.

Gulen, who has been based in the US since 1999, denied any involvement in the claims.

By coincidence, Istanbul prosecutors announced on Monday they were dropping all legal proceedings against 96 people investigated as a result of the corruption allegations, including Erdoğan’s son Bilal.

Erdoğan stepped in to his new role as president last Thursday after winning Turkey’s first direct presidential elections on 10 August. His close ally, former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, was appointed his successor as premier.

Erdoğan had said Davutoglu was chosen due to his “determination to fight” the parallel state.

Speaking at Istanbul airport before leaving on his first foreign trip as head of state, Erdoğan said more operations could follow to arrest further suspects.

“As you know it is only part of the process. It is not the end,” he said. There could be a new wave “if new information or evidence emerge.”

Since the allegations first broke, the government has already moved to purge opponents from the security forces and increase its control over appointments in the judiciary.

In a speech on Monday, Turkey’s top judge issued a thinly veiled warning to Erdoğan to refrain from interfering in the judiciary.

“A judicial authority that is under the influence of the executive cannot correctly fulfil its role which is to prevent arbitrariness and illegality,” said the president of Turkey’s supreme court, Ali Alkan, in a speech marking the opening of the judicial year.

In a sign of the tensions between the government and the judiciary, both Erdoğan and his prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu shunned the event to mark the new judicial year, which they would normally be expected to attend.