Eye doctor Ayhan Yılmaz has been missing since he was detained by Turkish police under the post-coup emergency rules, according to his journalist brother İsmail Hakkı Yılmaz.
Bursa police raided house of Dr. Yılmaz and took him under custody on August 24. According to information gathered by his journalist brother, Yılmaz was sent to the police station in 470-km-away Bartın province.
“I directly went to Bartın to look after my brother on Aug.24. …I gave a phone call to the police station through which I was told Dr. Ayhan Yılmaz was held there. The officer on the phone refused to respond any other question,” Hakkı Yılmaz said.
“However, for the past 27 days I have failed to find out if my brother was still safe and sound and if he was still held in the custody of Bartın Police Station,” he added.
The journalist also said he has been staying in his car near the police station for 27 days.
“As I am not based in 27 days, I have been staying in my automobile for the whole 27 days. As police officers guarding the police station and surveillance cameras may have witnessed, I have been stopping by there to seek information about my brother for 3 to 4 times every day,” he maintained.
The cases of missing detainees are nothing new for Turkey. Recep Demir, a Turkish teacher working at a private school in İstanbul, has never returned home since he was detained on Aug 9 while family members of the journalist İbrahim Karayeğen earlier spoke to media that they failed to hear from Karayeğen since his detention.
Turkey has detained more than 40,000 people and arrested 24,000 people over their links to the coup attempt since July 15. (Turkey Purge)