“GLOBAL PURGE” [1]
Since July 2016, the Turkish government went on to imprison hundreds of thousands of homemakers, mothers, children, babies, teachers, NGO workers, academics, judges, prosecutors, journalists and countless other victims. Erdoğan declared a “witch-hunt” against Gülen’s followers, attempting to convince countries through carrot and stick policies or more diplomatic means to join his personal fight and do the same to the Hizmet members within their borders.
Unfortunately, in some countries, the local intelligence agencies cooperated to seize Gülen followers, while in some others, Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) did not even need to ask for permission to stage an operation. Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Cyprus, Gabon, Georgia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine are some of these countries. Freedom House states in their Transnational Repression report that “no other perpetrator state was found to have conducted such a large number of renditions, from so many host countries, during the coverage period—and the
documented total is almost certainly an undercount”. [2]
Although ascertaining the exact number is not easy, AST has put together a List of Abduction Report , which includes 144 abductees’ names, professions, date of disappearances, place of the incidents, the current status of the persons and the details regarding the incidents along with a thorough discussion over the abductions and enforced disappearances within the framework of international law. [3]
Victims were abducted inside and outside Turkey through nefarious methods, brushing away even the most basic rights to fair trial and defense.
Here are some examples of the cases from the report:
Isa Ozdemir, a businessman, was abducted from Azerbaijan in July 2018. He is currently jailed and pending trial in Turkey. İsa Özdemir was delivered to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) by the Azeri authorities unlawfully. The European Court of Human Rights demanded Azerbaijan authorities to explain the reason for the rendition of Özdemir despite concerns that he may be subjected to torture in Turkey.
Arif Komis, an educator, was detained in Malaysia in August 2019. The police from the Malaysian Immigration Bureau detained Arif Komis, his wife and four children. Komis, the director and a teacher at Hibiscus International School, had applied for asylum and was under UN protection. Malaysia surrendered the teacher to Turkey, ignoring reactions against this decision in the international and domestic circles. He is currently jailed and pending trial in Turkey.
Very recently, Orhan Inandi went missing in Kyrgyzstan in June 2021. Educator İnandı, founder and director of the Sapat school network in Kyrgyzstan, went missing after leaving his house in Bishkek on Monday evening.He was last contacted by a friend at
around 9 p.m. Attempts by his family to contact him all failed. He is feared to have been abducted by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement and is believed to be held captive and tortured at the Turkish Embassy, according to his family.
The veil of secrecy over the enforced disappearances has still not been lifted, and it will probably take many years for a full-fledged illumination of them. Those who were found were mostly traumatized after long sessions of tortures. Their physical and
psychological conditions were devastated beyond description. Advocates of Silenced Turkey urges all relevant institutions of the International Human Rights community to urgently provide information to resolve questions and suspicions about the incidents.
AST also urges the Turkish authorities to carry out a thorough, prompt, independent and impartial investigation on enforced disappearances and abductions.
| 2016 SONRASI TURKIYE’DE VE YURT DISINDA KACIRILAN KISILER | |||||||
| N° | Name | Profession | Date of Disapperance or Arrest | Place of incident | Incident | Current Status | Details |
| 1 | Sunay Elmas | Educator | 27-Jan-2016 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Sunay Elmas is the first person ever recorded to have been abducted for alleged ties with the Gülen movement. He was a victim of the enforced disappearance even before the failed coup on July 15, 2016, at the Ankara CEPA shopping mall while he was returning from dropping his kids at home in Sincan district. Elmas had also been forced into a Volkswagon Transporter with tinted windows. His family has not heard from Elmas since then. |
| 2 | Abdullah Büyük | Software Engineer | 10-Aug-2016 | Bulgaria | Rendition | Arrested, pending trial | Abdullah Büyük escaped persecution in Turkey and sought asylum in Bulgaria. The Turkish state demanded his extradition. Despite a decision by a Bulgarian court providing him protection, Büyük was deported and handed over to the Turkish authorities in a move which the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov had described as an act on “the edge of the law.” |
| 3 | Alaettin Duman | Educator | 13-Oct-16 | Malaysia | Arbitrary arrest and detention | Sentenced to 18 years | Kidnapped on his way to a mosque by Malaysian police, Duman was deported to Turkey illegally. He was tortured severely both in Malaysia and Turkey. Duman had been teaching in Malaysia for 10 years before he was abducted and was one of the founders of Time International School. Erdoğan’s media had accused him of being the point man of the Gülen movement in Malaysia. Duman was sentenced to 18 years on April 17, 2018. |
| 4 | Tamer Tıbık | Businessman | 13-Oct-2016 | Malaysia | Abduction | Sentenced to 12.5 years | Tamer Tıbık was seized in Kuala Lumpur on his way to a language course. His name was asserted by a pro-Erdoğan newspaper on August 7, 2016 as one of the key members of the movement in this country. Tıbık served as the general secretary of the Malaysian–Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry for about one and a half years. He was married with two daughters and was a legal resident of Malaysia since 2015 with a valid employment visa. |
| 5 | Ayhan Oran | Intelligence Agent | 1-Nov-2016 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Ayhan Oran was a MİT agent and reportedly had sensitive knowledge on the assassination of three Kurdish activist women, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez in Paris on 9 January, 2013. He was last seen leaving the MİT compound on Nov. 1, 2016. |
| 6 | Mustafa Özgür Gültekin | Public Employee | 21-Dec-2016 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Gültekin was abducted by unidentified people who followed him with four cars to a convenience store in Ankara’s Beştepe neighborhood. His case is also known to be the first “black Transporter” incident. Some rumors attach his abduction to the assassination of the Russian Ambassador Andery Karlov. His abduction was not examined by the police despite frequent applications by his family, and Parliamentary questions by some deputies into his disappearance were left unanswered. |
| 7 | Hüseyin Kötüce | IT technician | 28-Feb-2107 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Sentenced for 15 Years | Hüseyin Kötüce, an employee for the government-run Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), was abducted at a parking lot of the Batıkent subway station in Ankara after he got off work on Feb 28, 2017. Despite successive requests, the police conducted no concrete examination of the incident. |
| 8 | Mesut Geçer | Intelligence Agent | 26-Mar-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Sentenced | Mesut Geçer worked at MİT until he was dismissed as part of the government’s post-coup crackdown. He was abducted in the Çakırlar quarter in Ankara’s Yenimahalle district, on March 26, 2017. His family’s fight to find a trace of him has proven useless so far. |
| 9 | Uğur Toksoy | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Abduction | Asylee in Kosovo | Toksoy, a Turkish teacher at the Gülen-affiliated Hasan Nahi school in Prizren and head of the Atmosfera Association in Kosovo, was among the people sought by the police for deportation. But he was fortunate to evade extradition since the police were unable to find him that day. Toksoy applied for asylum on November 3, 2017, which was approved on April 6, 2018. |
| 10 | Cihan Özkan | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Rendition | Sentenced to 7.5 years | Cihan Ozkan was a teacher at the Orizont school iin Kosovo. He was among the 6 people who were illegally abducted by the Kosovar intelligence forces and deported to Turkey illegally. Özkan was arrested in Turkey and a court sentenced him to seven years and six months in November 2019. |
| 11 | Hasan Hüseyin Günakan | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Rendition | Sentenced to 8 years and one month | Hasan Hüseyin Günakan was one of the six Turkish nationals who were deported from Kosovo to Turkey on March 29, 2018. He was a teacher. A Turkish court sentenced him to eight years and one month. |
| 12 | Kahraman Demirez | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Rendition | Sentenced to 8 years and nine months. | Kahraman Demirez, the principal of Mehmet Akif College in Gjakova, was abducted illegally in a joint operation by the Kosovar and Turkish intel agencies. He was one of the six educators deported to Turkey despite the concerns of unfair trial and inhumane treatment. He was sentenced to eight years, nine months imprisonment on December 26, 2019. |
| 13 | Mustafa Erdem | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Mustafa Erdem was not among the first wave of detainments by the Kosovo intelligence, but he was also included in the list while he was trying to get information into what exactly was happening and to help his friends. He was sent to Turkey with the rest and has been waiting for a court decision behind bars since then. |
| 14 | Osman Karakaya | Physician | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Rendition | Sentenced to 7.5 years | Osman Karakaya was a cardiology professor who had moved to Kosovo to escape the persecution of the Erdoğan regime in Turkey. But unfortunately he was detained by Kosovo police and was deported to Turkey unlawfully in a covert operation. He was sentenced to seven years and six months imprisonment in November 2019. |
| 15 | Yusuf Karabina | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Kosovo | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Yusuf Karabina, the Vice Director of the Gülistan Educational Institutions, his wife Yasemin Karabina and their 15-year-old son were stopped by Kosovo police in plainclothes on the morning of March 31, 2017. The Kosovan officers used violence to force them into the cars and reportedly continued beating them during their detention in the station. Karabina was sent to Turkey unlawfully, and there he was put in jail. He is still pending trial. |
| 16 | Turgut Çapan | University Director | 31-Mar-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Turgut Çapan was abducted on March 31, 2017, in Ankara. His wife Ülkü Çapan released a video clip in which she said Önder Asan, a friend of her husband’s, dropped by her home to inform her of Turgut’s abduction. Asan was also abducted on the same day. |
| 17 | Önder Asan | Educator | 31-Mar-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Turned over to police after torture. Jailed pending trial. | Önder Asan was found 42 days after his sudden disappearance in Ankara, with severe torture signs on his body. He was psychologically devastated. His wife Fatma filed petitions with police and the prosecutor to investigate possible kidnapping but had no progress. His lawyer Burak Çolak was detained after refusing to sign a false statement saying Asan hadn’t seen any violence and that he was absent on his own will. |
| 18 | Cengiz Usta | Educator | 4-Apr-2017 | Turkey-İzmir | Enforced Disappearance | Returned home safe and sound. | Cengiz Usta was a teacher at the Cumhuriyet Primary School in Torbalı district of Turkey’s İzmir province. He was dismissed from his job by the government on September 1, 2016. He was abducted by two men after leaving home to pay for the elevator maintenance fee. He reappeared in Afyon on July 10, 2017, saying he left home on his own accord because he was depressed. |
| 19 | Mustafa Ceyhan | Businessman | 20-Apr-2017 | Azerbaijan | Rendition | Sentenced to 9 years | While crossing the Azerbaijani border, Ceyhan was detained with the allegation of “forgery of documents” and was arrested. The same day he was released after a year in prison, he was kidnapped while he was standing between his own lawyer and a UN lawyer appointed for his case, ostensibly by Turkish intelligence agents. He was immediately sent to Turkey and was put in prison. |
| 20 | Turgay Karaman | Educator | 2-May-2017 | Malaysia | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | Turgay Karaman was the principal of the Gülen movement-affiliated Time International School. On 2 May 2017, he was kidnapped in Malaysia. CCTV footage revealed that he was forced into a car by five unidentified persons in an underground parking garage. His family quickly discovered that he could not be reached, and they alerted the local police and the UN office in Kuala Lumpur. Karaman was deported to Turkey, where he was arrested. |
| 21 | İhsan Arslan | Businessman | 1-May-2017 | Malaysia | Arbitrary arrest and detention | Released on Judicial Control | Arslan went missing on May 1, 2017, in Kuala Lumpur around 8 p.m. He was a member of the Malaysian Turkish Chamber Of Commerce and Industry, a business advocacy group that is affiliated with the Gülen movement. A court ordered his released on judicial control on May 25. |
| 22 | İsmet Özçelik | Academician | 4-May-2017 | Malaysia | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Awaiting resettlement by UNHCR after having previously been the victim of an attempted abduction from his son’s home in Kuala Lumpur, İsmet Özçelik was kidnapped by Malaysian security officers. The local police intervened and stopped the rendition. He was detained for a period of 50 days before Malaysian authorities decided to release him pending trial. On 4 May 2017, he was once again deprived of his liberty. On 12 May 2017, he was sent to Turkey although he had a pending extradition hearing and no judicial decision to that effect had been taken. Upon return to Turkey, he was held in incommunicado detention at an unknown location and was later arrested. |
| 23-39 | Anonymous 17 people | Various | 6-May-2017 | Saudi Arabia | Rendition | 4 arrested others released | Saudi Arabia detained 17 people as per the official request by the Turkish authorities on June 5, 2017. The detainees were Hajj pilgrimage organizers in Saudi Arabia, and they were accused of spending the income from their business for Hizmet activities. Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization played an active role in the arrests of the suspects. Later, the suspects were detained in Turkey by Ankara police department’s counterterrorism units and put in jail. A court ruled for the arrest of 4 while releasing the other 13 people. Their names were not disclosed. |
| 40 | Mustafa Özben | Lawyer | 9-May-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Mustafa Özben, a lawyer, was abducted on May 9, 2017, after leaving his daughter at school. His car was found parked on a street in Ankara, and the CCTV records showed the moment when he was forcefully snatched by a Transporter. |
| 41 | Fatih Kılıç | Educator | 14-May-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Dismissed from his teaching job under the post-coup emergency rule, Kilic was abducted on May 14, 2017. There has been no sign of him since the last CCTV footage he appeared in shows him getting into a vehicle found in the Ankara’s Kızılay district. Both the police and the prosecution ignored the family’s insistent requests for a detailed investigation to find Kılıç. He is still missing. |
| 42 | Durmus Ali Çetin | Police officer | 17-May-2017 | Turkey-Hatay | Disappearance | Found dead | Durmuş Ali Çetin, a former police officer who had been dismissed from his job by government decree 10 months ago, was found dead at his home in İstanbul on May 17, 2017, apparently having committed suicide. It was reported that Çetin fell into a depression after he had difficulty repaying a loan he secured to buy the house in İstanbul. |
| 43 | Muhammet Furkan Sökmen | Accountant | 24-May-2017 | Myanmar | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | On May 24, 2017, Burmese officials detained Sökmen at Yangon International Airport at the request of Turkish authorities who had canceled his passport. After he and his family were held for approximately 24 hours, he was forcibly sent to Turkey via Thailand. Despite international warnings that there were substantial grounds to believe that he would face an imminent risk of human rights abuse upon his return to Turkey, Sökmen’s abduction went ahead unimpeded. |
| 44 | Mustafa Emre Çabuk | Educator | 25-May-2017 | Georgia | Rendition | Released on bail | Mustafa Emre Çabuk had a valid Georgian residence permit and was working as a teacher when he was detained by the Georgian security forces and later arrested by a Georgian court upon a request from the Turkish government. The incident created a big outcry in the country as well as a reaction from internationl human rights organizations. He was released after 9 months. |
| 45 | Cemil Koçak | Engineer | 15-Jun-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Dismissed from his job, Cemil Koçak was abducted on June 15, 2017. His car was forced to stop by four cars at around 5:30 p.m. near his home in Ankara’s Altındağ district. He was kidnapped by brute force in front of his 8-year-old son. The abduction took place in a blind spot not covered by any of the four CCTV cameras in the area, according to the account. |
| 46 | Murat Okumuş | Accountant | 16-Jun-2017 | Turkey-İzmir | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Murat Okumuş was an accountant director at the Şifa University Hospital in İzmir province until it was shut down by the government. He was abducted in June 2017. |
| 47 | Yusuf İnan | Journalist | 15-Jul-2017 | Ukraine | Rendition | Arrested, pending trial | Yusuf İnan was a lawful resident in Ukraine with a permit he legally obtained after his marriage in 2015. The couple were sheep breeding on their farm for their livelihood. He was also a journalist. Turkish and Ukrainian agents kidnapped him while he was working on his farm with his wife. He was sent to Turkey and was arrested on the charge of being a member of the Gülen movement, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. İzmir Public Prosecutor demanded 15 years for İnan, citing as evidence his articles praising the Gülen movement and criticizing Erdoğan. |
| 48 | Zabit Kişi | Educator | 16-Sep-2017 | Kazakhstan | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | Zabit Kişi was abducted from a plane by a group of unknown people in the Kazakh city of Almaty. Kişi was accused of having links with the Gülen movement. He was tortured for 108 days by MİT agents in a secluded place and was later turned over to the police. Kılıç was sent behind the bars by a court, which refused to do anything about the torturers. |
| 49 | Enver Kılıç | Educator | 16-Sep-2017 | Kazakhstan-Almaty | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | Enver Kılıç was the other person, alongside Zabit Kişi, who was abducted from a plane by a group of unknown people in the Kazakh city of Almaty. Enver Kılıç reappeared on 11 April 2018; however, UN’s Committee on Enforced Disappearances noted that Kılıç was also tortured during 73 days of detention in an unknown place. His health was in a bad condition. |
| Mesut Kaçmaz | Educators | 27-Sep-2017 | Pakistan | Abduction | Released pending trial | Mesut Kaçmaz, his wife Meral and daughters Huda Nur and Fatma Huma, were abducted forcefully in the middle of the night from their home and were later deported to Turkey. Mesut and Meral were arrested, while the teenage daughters were turned over to a relative. The two persons were released in the first hearing. | |
| 50 | Meral Kaçmaz | Educators | 27-Sep-2017 | Pakistan | Abduction | Released pending trial | Mesut Kaçmaz, his wife Meral and daughters Huda Nur and Fatma Huma, were abducted forcefully in the middle of the night from their home and were later deported to Turkey. Mesut and Meral were arrested, while the teenage daughters were turned over to a relative. The two persons were released in the first hearing. |
| 51 | Hakan İslamoğlu | Businessman | 19-Oct-2017 | Indonesia | Rendition | Released | He was captured in Indonesia in an operation by the MİT and was deported to Turkey. He wanted to become an informant and provided the names of the some of the members of the Gülen movement in Indonesia and in several other countries and was released. |
| 52 | Hıdır Çelik | Farmer | 16-Nov-2017 | Turkey-Diyarbakır | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Hıdır Çelik was in a village in Diyarbakır for animal trade when the security forces had an armed fight with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. A statement from the governorate accused Hıdır of being a collaborative and said he was captured injured. Ever since then, his family’s attempts to learn his whereabouts have failed. |
| 53 | Memduh Çıkmaz | Businessman | 27-Nov-2017 | Sudan-Khartoom | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | Memduh Çıkmaz was a successful businessman who had been dealing with manufacturing and trade in Turkey and in Sudan for many years. He was brought to Turkey from Sudan in a joint operation between the two countries’ intelligence agencies. Sudanese security forces were also involved in his arrest and repatriation. |
| 54 | Ümit Horzum | Public Employee | 6-Dec-2017 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Released | Horzum was abducted in Ankara on June, 12, 2017. His family’s applications to different security departments to find a trace of him have not borne any fruit. He was registered as “missing” rather than “abducted,” and no prosecutor has initiated any legal proceeding as to what has happened to him. |
| 55 | Aslan Çelik | Superintendent | 19-Jan-2018 | Iraq | Abduction | Rescued | Arslan Çelik was the superintendent of the Roonaki Salahaddin Ayyubi Colleges. He was abducted on January 19, 2018, on his way to the school by a group of armed men who forcefully seized him on Kurdsat Avenue in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi-Kurdistan. The country’s late president Jalal Talabany’s wife, Hero, stepped in and saved Çelik, who was later sent to Dubai under the protection of Hero and from there to the United States. |
| 56 | Ayhan Seferoğlu | Educator | 19-Feb-2018 | Azerbaijan | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Ayhan Seferoğlu was detained by Azeri police and was kept in jail for 40 days before a court released him. His relatives were waiting outside to meet him, but he was abducted by unidentified persons from the backdoor of the courthouse. Seferoğlu’s wife called on the Azeri authorities to help find her husband. He was brought to Ankara and was arrested for being a member of a terror organization. |
| 57 | Erdoğan Taylan | Manager | 19-Feb-2018 | Azerbaijan | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Erdoğan Taylan, along with his friend Ayhan Seferoğlu, was detained by the Azeri police on charges of being a member of the Gülen movement. An Azeri court decided to release them. Their relatives were waiting for Seferoğlu and Taylan to be freed outside the courthouse, but they didn’t show up. It was later revealed that the two men were abducted while exiting from the back door. He was brought to Turkey illegally and was arrested. |
| 58 | Faik Semih Başoğlu | Businessman | 19-Feb-2018 | Azerbaijan | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Faik Semih Başoğlu was delivered to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) by the Azeri authorities unlawfully. The European Court of Human Rights demanded Azerbaijan authorities to explain the reason for the rendition of Başoğlu despite concerns that he may be subjected to torture in Turkey. Başoğlu was questioned by the MİT before being submitted to the prosecution. He was arrested and is currently awaiting trial. |
| 59 | Ayten Öztürk | Student | 8-Mar-2018 | Lebanon | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Ayten Öztürk was abducted in the Lebanon airport on March 8, 2018, delivered to the Turkish intelligence units on March 13, 2018, and subjected to severe torture for six months. Öztürk had been living in Syria since she was wanted in Turkey for being a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) and had moved to Lebanon to migrate from there to Europe after the conditions had aggravated in Syria. |
| 60 | Osman Özpınar | Educator | 15-Mar-2018 | Gabon | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Gabon authorities rounded up the principal of the Ecole la Lumière School, Osman Özpınar, on March 15, 2018, for forgery of official documents. This was proven wrong by the defendant, but instead of releasing him, the Gabon authorities detained him again, this time on the grounds that he was a threat to national security. He was deported to Turkey, where he was arrested on terror charges. |
| 61 | İbrahim Akbaş | Educator | 15-Mar-2018 | Gabon | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Gabon authorities detained İbrahim Akbaş, the director of pedagogy of the Lumiere School, along with his spouse Fikriye, who was the accountant at the same school, on March 15, 2018. They were first charged with forgery of official documents. But when they were acquitted from this charge, the Gabon authorities detained them again, this time on the grounds that they constituted a threat to national security. They were deported to Turkey. İsa was arrested, while Fikriye was released. |
| 62 | Fikriye Akbaş | Educator | 15-Mar-2018 | Gabon | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Gabon authorities detained İbrahim Akbaş, the director of pedagogy of the Lumiere School, along with his spouse Fikriye, who was the accountant at the same school, on March 15, 2018. They were first charged with forgery of official documents. But when they were acquitted from this charge, the Gabon authorities detained them again, this time on the grounds that they constituted a threat to national security. They were deported to Turkey. İsa was arrested, while Fikriye was released. |
| 63 | Adnan Demirönal | Educator | 22-Mar-2018 | Gabon | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Adnan Demirönal was detained in Gabon for his alleged links with the Gülen movement and was deported to Turkey. He was charged with being the “imam,” or the point man for the African country. He refused the assertions, saying he wasn’t involved in any activity other than teaching. |
| 64 | Orçun Şenyücel | Public Employee | 21-Apr-2018 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Orçun Şenyücel, a former public employee who was dismissed from his job at the Competition Authority in 2016, was abducted after being forced into a black Transporter in Ankara’s Türkkonut neighborhood at midnight on April 21, 2018. |
| 65 | İsa Özdemir | Businessman | 12-Jul-2018 | Azerbaijan | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | İsa Özdemir was delivered to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) by the Azeri authorities unlawfully. The European Court of Human Rights demanded Azerbaijan authorities to explain the reason for the rendition of Özdemir despite concerns that he may be subjected to torture in Turkey. Başoğlu was questioned by the MİT before submitting him to the prosecution. He was arrested and jailed pending trial. |
| 66 | Salih Zeki Yiğit | Businessman | 12-Jul-2018 | Ukraine | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Salih Zeki Yigit was an alleged imam of the Gülen movement in the southern Mersin province. He was accused of carrying out money transfers to financially support the activities of the movement. He fled to Ukraine after the defeated July 15, 2016 coup attempt but was detained and sent to Turkey by this country. |
| 67 | Hasan Kala | Academician | 21-Jul-2018 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Associated Professor Kala was abducted after being forced into a black Transporter in Ankara’s Batıkent district at 11:30 p.m. on July 21, 2018. |
| 68 | Veysel Akçay | Educator | 27-Jul-2018 | Mongolia | Abduction | Rescued | Veysel Akçay was forcefully captured in his home by a group of five masked men, possibly Turkish spies, and he was bundled into a van to be illegally abducted to Turkey. A Turkish army aircraft was waiting to transport him. But after his family and friends mobilized a reaction online and informed Mongolian authorities about the incident, the aircraft was forced to land and Akçay was saved. |
| 69-113 | Anonymous 45 people | Various | 28-Jul-2018 | KKTC | Rendition | Some were released, others are remanded. | The Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) captured 45 individuals, allegedly having links with the Gülen movement, off Kyrenia before they set sail on board a yacht to take refuge in Greece. Among the captured people, there were 9 women and 17 children. All of them were deported to Turkey. |
| 114 | Fahri Mert | Businessman | 12-Aug-2018 | Turkey-İzmir | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Fahri Mert was abducted in İzmir province by a black Transporter van by a group of people who introduced themselves as police officers, saying they were taking him to the police station. He has been missing since then. |
| 115 | Ahmet Bilgi | Educator | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Ahmet Bilgi was one of the six Turkish nationals seized by the Moldovan authorities in 2018. He was deported to Turkey like the rest and was arrested after the first hearing. |
| 116 | Feridun Tüfekçi | Educator | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Feridun Tüfekci was the director of the branch of the Orizont school in the city of Ceadîr-Lunga. Having come to the country at the age of 17 to study, he later became a permanent resident after marrying his teacher, Galina. Tüfekçi also worked as a journalist for sometime, representing a Turkish TV channel in Moldova. He was deported to Turkey. |
| 117 | Hasan Karacaoğlu | Educator | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Rendition | Sentenced to 8 years and 3 months. | Hasan Karacaoğlu was in Moldova for over 20 years by the time he was abducted in 2018. During all his time at the Orizont schools in Moldova, he was helping Moldovan youth prepare for their lives. He was the deputy director by the time he was expelled from the country for no reason. |
| 118 | Rıza Doğan | Educator | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Rıza Doğan had established a life in Moldova for over 20 years. He married there and both of his daughters were born in the country. He also was running a company of his own, paying taxes and was an integrated part of Moldova. He was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison by a Turkish court on July 19, 2019. |
| 119 | Yasin Özdil | Public Relations Director | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Rendition | Sentenced to 12 years | Yasin Özdil was in charge of public relations for the Orizont high school network. He tried to make his voice heard by informing of the abduction to his circles on social media with a message at 8:42 in the morning. He was deported to Turkey. |
| 120 | Hüseyin Bayraktar | Educator | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | He was snatched by the MİT from the front of the school he was working at. Hüseyin Bayraktar had only spent three years in Moldova, teaching Turkish language. |
| 121 | Mujdat Celebi | Educator | 6-Sep-2018 | Moldova | Abduction | Jailed pending trial | Müjdat Çelebi had been residing in Moldova for five years. He was the financial director of the company that manages the Orizont high schools in Moldova. |
| 122 | Ahmet Ertürk | Educator | 16-Nov-2018 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Found | Ahmet Ertürk, a teacher at a school run by the Gülen movement, was abducted on Nov. 16, 2018. After his abduction, his parents’ home was raided by the police. He reappeared in Ankara Police Department on January 8, 2019. |
| 123 | Mehmet Gelen | Educator | 30-Dec-2018 | Azerbaijan | Arrested and deported | Jailed pending trial | Mehmet Gelen, a Turkish schoolteacher in Azerbaijan, was abducted by Turkish intelligence agents after he was interrogated by an Azerbaijani prosecutor over allegations of his links with the Hizmet movement. Gelen was taken to Turkey within hours. |
| 124 | İbrahim E | Businessman | 30-Jan-2019 | Azerbaijan | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | İbrahim E. was the owner of the printing house that was publishing the Zaman newspaper in Azerbaijan. MİT notified the Azeri intelligence that the person is a key figure of the Gülen movement in the country. He was captured in a joint operation and was deported to Turkey. |
| 125 | Gökhan Türkmen | Civil Servant | 7-Feb-2019 | Turkey-Antalya | Enforced Disappearance | Jailed pending trial | Gökhan Türkmen was abducted on Feb. 7, 2019. According to his family, Türkmen was hiding from persecution and torture after his house was raided by heavily armed counterterrorism police in his absence in August 2016. Türkmen reappeared in a police station and told the court in February 2020 that he was subjected to torture for 271 days. |
| 126 | Yasin Ugan | Accountant | 12-Feb-2019 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Jailed pending trial | Yasin Ugan was abducted by armed men from his apartment building. The Ankara Police Department denied any knowledge of the incident or his whereabouts. He was delivered to the Ankara police on July 26 by the people who abducted him. He was arrested and sent to jail on August 10, 2019. |
| 127 | Özgür Kaya | Educator | 12-Feb-2019 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Jailed pending trial | Özgür Kaya was abducted in the same incident as Yasin Ugan. Like Ugan, he was also returned to the Ankara police on July 26, 2019. He was charged with terror organization membership and was put in jail on August 10, 2019. |
| 128 | Erkan Irmak | Educator | 16-Feb-2019 | Turkey-İstanbul | Enforced Disappearance | Jailed pending trial | Erkan Irmak was kidnapped in front of his house in İstanbul on the night of Feb. 16, 2019, and his family has been unable to reach him since. On July 26, 2019, he appeared in police custody and was arrested as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement. He was later arrested and sent to the prison on August 10, 2019. |
| 129 | Mustafa Yılmaz | Physiotherapist | 19-Feb-2019 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Mustafa Yılmaz was kidnapped in Ankara when he left his home on February 19, 2019. Yılmaz was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. He was released pending appeal in January 2019, after serving 100 days in prison. |
| 130 | Salim Zeybek | Technician | 21-Feb-2019 | Turkey-Edirne | Enforced Disappearance | Jailed pending trial | Zeybek was abducted by armed men in the Turkish province of Edirne on the evening of Feb. 21, 2019, while travelling with his wife and children. He appeared at the Ankara police after 5 months, worn out from severe torture. Zeybek was later arrested and sent to prison on August 10, 2019. He is kept in solitary confinement. |
| 131 | Fatih Keskin | Businessman | 12-Mar-2019 | Bosnia | Arbitrary arrest and detention | Released | Fatih Keskin, director of Richmond Park Schools in Bihac in northwest Bosnia, was arrested on March 12, 2019, after his permanent residence permit was revoked for unknown reasons. Bosnian authorities were poised to deport him to Turkey, where he is wanted over his connections with the Gülen movement. However, a Bosnian court ruled against his rendition. Keskin was released. |
| 132 | Yusuf Bilge Tunç | Public Employee | 6-Aug-2019 | Turkey-Ankara | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Yusuf Bilge Tunç was a former civil servant at the Defense Ministry and was dismissed as part of the broad witch hunt following the coup attempt on July 15, 2016. He has been missing since August 6, 2019, and the car he used was found in the Çamlıca neighbourhood of Ankara. |
| 133 | Arif Komis | Educator | 8/30/2019 change to conform | Malaysia | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | The police from the Malaysian Immigration Bureau detained Arif Komis, his wife and four children. Komis, the director and a teacher at Hibiscus International School, had applied for asylum and was under UN protection. Malaysia surrendered the teacher to Turkey, ignoring reactions against this decision in the international and domestic circles. |
| 134 | Osman Karaca | Educator | 19-Oct-2019 | Mexico | Rendition | Jailed pending trial | Karaca was arrested by the Mexican police and was turned into the Turkish intelligence agents, according to the state-run news agency Anatolia. Karaca worked at the Zaman International School for nearly 9 years. His extradition drew ire from human rights associations in Mexico. |
| 135 | Harun Ayvaz | Electrical Technician | 16-Aug-2019 | Montenegro | Arrested | Waiting court decision | Ayvaz has been detained in a Montanegrin prison in Bijelo Polje since August 16, 2019, waiting the extradition decision. The court has already ruled in favor of his extradition, and the Higher Court ruled for a second time in October to extradite him to Turkey. The Podgorica Appeal Court also rejected his appeal against this decision. The last word for now belongs to the Justice Minister of Montenegro. |
| 136 | Harun Çelik | Businessman | 2-Jan-2020 | Albania | Arbitrary arrest, detention and rendition | Jailed pending trial | Kept behind bars for five months, Çelik was deported to Turkey by Albania. A video taken while he was being taken to the airport shows MİT officers were actively involved in his capture. Turkish media claimed Çelik was an active user of the communication program ByLock. |
| 137 | Gülistan Doku | Student | 5-Jan-2020 | Turkey | Disappearance | Missing | Gülistan Doku, a student of Munzur University in Turkey’s eastern province of Dersim, went missing on January 5, 2020. While search efforts continued for some time in the Uzunçayır Dam, where she was seen for the last time, these efforts were also ended as of August 18. Considering that the teams came across no trace of Doku, it has been confirmed that she is not in the water. There is also still no detention warrant against Zeınal Abarakov, the chief suspect in the investigation file. |
| 138 | Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit | former legal advisor | 29-Dec-2020 | Turkey | Enforced Disappearance | Missing | Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit, a former legal advisor at the Prime Ministry who was dismissed following the 2016 coup attempt, has been missing since 29 December 2020. His family suspect him to have been abducted and subjected to enforced disappearance and all their efforts to locate him since have been in vain. The authorities have denied that he is in official custody. |
| 139 | Gökhan Güneş | electrician | 20-Jan-2021 | Turkey | Missing | Delivered | Forced to get in a car in İstanbul on January 20, the fate and whereabouts of Gökhan Güneş were unknown for five days. Güneş has returned home.
As reported by Etkin News Agency (ETHA), Güneş was left in Başakşehir district in İstanbul at around 6 a.m. today (January 26). The people who abducted him released Gökhan Güneş blindfolded. Afterwards, he returned to his family’s house by his own means. |
| 140 | Ugurcan Bayna | Students | 18-Feb-2021 | Turkey-Ankara | Missing | Delivered | Three university students in the capital Ankara were kidnapped on Feb. 18 afternoon by people who described themselves as the police. The students were later in the day released, after their lawyer notified of their kidnapping to the Ankara Police headquarters. The students held a press conference regarding the incident, saying the kidnappers had carried out criminal record checks (GBT) on them. |
| 141 | S.B. | Students | 18-Feb-2021 | Turkey-Ankara | Missing | Delivered | Three university students in the capital Ankara were kidnapped on Feb. 18 afternoon by people who described themselves as the police. The students were later in the day released, after their lawyer notified of their kidnapping to the Ankara Police headquarters. The students held a press conference regarding the incident, saying the kidnappers had carried out criminal record checks (GBT) on them. |
| 142 | Ali Berke Aydugan | Students | 18-Feb-2021 | Turkey-Ankara | Missing | Delivered | Three university students in the capital Ankara were kidnapped on Feb. 18 afternoon by people who described themselves as the police. The students were later in the day released, after their lawyer notified of their kidnapping to the Ankara Police headquarters. The students held a press conference regarding the incident, saying the kidnappers had carried out criminal record checks (GBT) on them. |
| 143 | Selahaddin Gulen | Teacher | 3-May-2021 | Kenia | Missing | Arrested | Turkish spies kidnapped in Kenya the nephew of Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan’s arch enemy Turkish authorities accuse Selahaddin Gülen of belonging to the preacher’s movement whom the president accuses of having engineered a coup attempt in July 2016 |
| 144 | Orhan Inandi | former director of school | 1-Jun-2021 | Kyrgyzstan | Missing | Missing | Educator Orhan İnandı, founder and director of the Sapat school network in Kyrgyzstan, went missing after leaving his house in Bishkek on Monday evening, the TR7/24 news website reported.He was last contacted by a friend at around 9 p.m. Attempts by his family to contact him all failed. He is feared to have been abducted by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, according to his family. |
[1] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2018-01-29/remarkable-scale-turkeys-global-purge
[2] https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/turkey
[3] https://silencedturkey.org/erdogans-long-arms-abductions-in-turkey-and-abroad
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